Lists
all Texts read and Websites visited whilst preparing this edition of The
Rebellion

90

Introduction

Biography
of Thomas Rawlins

Little
is known of Thomas Rawlins. The online Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography (DNB) estimates that Rawlins was born around 1620 in the south of
England and we know he was a relation of Robert Ducie of Aston, to whom he
dedicated The Rebellion when the play was published in 1640. We know that
Rawlins married Dorothea Narbona, probably after the Civil War in England finished. Rawlins moved to France after the English Civil War finished, before
returning to England when the monarchy was restored, and he produced a medal
for the Coronation of Charles II in 1660. Rawlins died, most likely in London, in 1670.

Rawlins’
main career throughout his life seems to be as an engraver. The Oxford DNB
states that Rawlins was an apprentice goldsmith and gem-engraver in London before working at the Royal Mint under Nicholas Briot, a renowned French engraver
and medallist. The Mint was moved to Oxford when the English Civil War
commenced in 1643 and Rawlins was appointed graver of seals, stamps and medals.
Rawlins was responsible for the 1644 ‘Celebrated Oxford Crown’, a coin which
showed King Charles I riding across the hills that overlooked the city of Oxford, and consequently was appointed Chief Engraver. During the Civil War Rawlins was
responsible for the production of many medals, most notably the Gold Shrewsbury
Medal commissioned on January 23rd 1643 and the ‘Peace or War’ medal
in July 1643, and as noted above, later the Coronation Medal for Charles II.

The
Rebellion
was the only play written by Rawlins to be performed during his lifetime and it
is not known when his two other plays – Tom Essence and The Modish
Wife – were published, though both were performed in the late 1670’s. Despite
his relatively short-lived and un-noteworthy literary career Rawlins was a
member of the Brome Circle along with Thomas Nabbes, John Tatham, Robert
Chamberlain, Richard Brome and Humphrey Mill. In an article for Notes and
Queries, Matthew Steggle details how Tatham contributed verses to Rawlins
who in turn wrote verses for Chamberlain, as well as for Nathaniel Richard’s
play Tragedy of Messalina. Steggle also details how Martin Butler
identifies the Brome Circle as being “politically aware, and bound together by
an interest in the moralizing possibilities of the popular tradition and a
sense of opposition to frivolous courtly values”[1].

Therefore
whilst The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography suggests that the
title The Rebellion was coincidently prophetic of the English Civil War,
Rawlins’ involvement with the Brome Circle suggests that the play could instead
have been a calculated prediction of what the of what the tumultuous political
and social atmosphere of the early seventeenth century in England would lead
to. For further details please see ‘Contemporary Topical Issues’.

The
Brome Circle’s “opposition to frivolous courtly values” suggests that the
frequent criticism of the Colonels’ foppish and courtly behaviour in The Rebellion
can be seen as true satirical commentary rather than Rawlins merely adhering to
contemporary popular themes and motifs

Date
of the Play and Brief Performance History

The
Rebellion
was performed between 1637 and 1639 by the King’s Revels (who also performed
plays by Rawlins’ close friends Richards and Brome) at Salisbury Court Theatre. Salisbury Court Theatre replaced the popular Whitefriars playhouse and was a
private, purpose-built playhouse built by Richard Gunnell and William Blagrove
in 1629. The Theatre was destroyed by soldiers during the Civil War but was one
of the first playhouses to open following the 1660 restoration of the English
Monarchy. Indeed Samuel Pepys records visiting Salisbury Court Theatre in his diary in 1661.

Playhouses
offered a greater degree of comfort than the open-air inn-yards and
amphitheatres (based on the Roman Coliseum), and as playhouses were roofed
performances could be put on throughout the year and in the evenings.
Consequently admittance to private indoor theatres was much more expensive,
costing between 2 and 26d a performance, compared to public theatres where a
performance could be watched for between 1 – 3d. The greater cost meant that
the majority of the working class were prohibited from attending playhouse
performances. At Salisbury Court Theatre, as at other playhouses, prices were
highest for the more comfortable seats and those that allowed for a better view
of the performance.

It is impossible to underestimate the impact that playhouses wrought on early
modern theatre. The acoustics of indoor theatres lent themselves to music and
songs and more playwrights began to include them in their plays, as does
Rawlins in Act IV Scene 5 of The Rebellion. For the first time scenery
and sumptuous costumes were used, many of which were sold to acting troupes by
the English aristocracy. The focus of plays was now the actors’ speeches rather
than loud, crass sound effects. Plays could be more powerful, passionate, and
satirical – more thought provoking perhaps? It was only with the introduction
of playhouses that Renaissance theatre began to resemble what we understand by
the term ‘theatre’ in the twenty-first century.

Indeed
it was not until playhouses were used for performances that intervals were
introduced - playhouses were lit by candles and when these burnt down there had
to be a way for them to be replaced without the performance being interrupted.
During the interval food and drink were served to keep the audience
entertained, as it still is today. Even now if you go to an open-air production
it is unlikely there will be a break in the performance but every modern
audience member would be surprised if there was not an interval during a theatre
performance.

Contemporary
Topical Issues

i)
The Political Climate in England and the Civil War

Firstly
I am aware that the English Civil War did not begin until October 1642 and that
this is five years after the first performance of Rawlins’ The Rebellion.,
but wars do not happen overnight. In this section I hope to show that events
from James I’s reign contributed to the civil war that tore England apart for seven years. Thomas Rawlins was a member of the politically conscious
Brome Circle – it can be no coincidence that he wrote a play about a powerful
man trying to overthrow a King who in many ways, as I will show, resembles both
James I and Charles I, such a short time before his own homeland was caught up
in a rebellion.

The
status of the monarchy in England began to decline during the reign of James I,
Elizabeth’s heir. James I strongly believed in the idea of ‘Divine Right’.
This is where the King is God’s representative on Earth: he is born into the
position and his position and power cannot be questioned, even by parliament.
James I was constantly in need of money and in 1611 when Parliament told him
that he could not collect further custom duties he suspended Parliament, and it
was not reconvened until 1621. During this decade James I’s friends helped rule
the country and were rewarded with land and titles. This angered Members of
Parliament as they believed it was their right to run England.

When James I recalled Parliament in 1621 it was to discuss the marriage between
his son, Charles, and the Spanish princess. Parliament ferociously stressed
their displeasure about the proposed alliance between Protestant England and
Catholic Spain, who only thirty years previously had tried to attack England. The relationship between King and parliament was irreversibly damaged, even though
the marriage never took place.

When Charles became King in 1625 he proved to be even more conceited and
arrogant than his father. As a firm believer in the ‘Divine Right’ of Kings he
blamed Parliament members entirely for their tumultuous relationship
with James I. in 1629 Charles I had the doors of Westminster locked with chains
and padlocks and what is now known as the ‘Eleven Years Tyranny’ ensued. During
this time Charles’ relationship with Parliament, the old aristocracy, some
members of the newly rich and, to an extent, even with the lower classes
declined.

Charles reconvened Parliament in 1640 when he needed money after angering the
Scots to such an extent they invaded England. Parliament agreed to give Charles
the money if the Earl of Stafford, one of his advisors, was executed and if
Charles disbanded the Court of Star Chamber, which he had replaced Parliament
with in 1629. Charles agreed but just two years later, on 4 January 1642, no
longer able to tolerate having to answer to Parliament, Charles raised 300
soldiers to arrest his more vociferous critics in Parliament. The men were
forewarned and managed to escape but it was now evident that Charles and the
English Parliament could no longer rule side by side. Civil War was inevitable.

In
light of the above it is possible to see The Rebellion as Rawlins’ predicting
the outcome of the prevailing social and political unrest. The above shows that
from 1611 England was ultimately a divided country. Increasing
industrialisation, urbanisation, over-crowding and unemployment inevitably led
to desire for change and Charles I represented everything that was conservative
and was blind to the need for change. Please see Characterisation and Themes
for further details.

ii)
Puritanical England

As any reader of Renaissance Literature
will be aware England had been caught up in religious turmoil since Henry
VIII’s reign. By the 1600’s an extreme form of Protestantism had emerged – Puritanism
– which advocated a simple, un-extravagant lifestyle. Giovanno makes reference
to this in I.2.158-9 when he refers to kneeling as a ‘superstitious rite’. As
explained in the glossary, in the latter half of the sixteenth century Puritans
preached against kneeling at the altar because it was a Conformist practices.

In Act 3 Scene 1 the Old Tailor refers to ‘sinful actors’ (line 68) which
evidently is highly ironic seeing as it is an actor saying it to a playhouse
full of regular theatregoers. Rawlins was evidently mocking the Puritans who
campaigned to have all theatres shut. However, as explained above, Salisbury Court was closed in 1648 and, along with all theatres, stayed closed during
Cromwell’s reign. It was until the Restoration and Charles II’s ascension to
the throne that theatres and other public entertainments reopened. As I will
show later tailors were derided from the Elizabethan era but even more so
during Cromwell’s reign when all extravagances including fine clothes were
viewed with suspicion and contempt.

As a playwright Rawlins obviously had little sympathy with Puritanical ideologies
but in light of the above it is with little wonder that Rawlins fled to France after Cromwell – a Puritan – won the Civil War. Rawlins was not an established
playwright but he had put himself in a difficult – and indeed dangerous –
position by criticising what came to be the dominant political and religious
force in England for eleven years and he had also worked for the Royal Mint
before and during the War. Rawlins could have been seen as a very dangerous
man.

Characterisation
and Themes

This
section of the introduction considers the themes and ideas that Rawlins
explores in The Rebellion; what it does not do is provide you with the
answers. I will explore the major aspects of the play and hopefully explain any
difficult ideas but my main aim is to make the reader aware of the political
and theoretical ideas that exist in The Rebellion and hopefully
encourage further thought and perhaps study. In this section I also examine the
main characters of the play and the ways in which Rawlins employs them to
develop the main ideas.

i)
Machvile, King Philip and Leadership

The
main action of the play revolves around Machvile’s plotting and Rawlins uses
this to explore the idea of power and leadership. To me Machvile is the most
powerful, complex and interesting of the characters by far. He is the only
character who speaks almost constantly in perfect iambic pentameter, which
makes him stand out immediately from the other characters. Not since
Shakespeare’s Don John in Much Ado About Nothing have we seen a
character full of such undiluted hatred make speeches full of such venom. Due
to the spelling of the name it is obvious that Rawlins wanted his readers / the
audience to make an immediate connection between The Rebellion’s main
villain and Machiavelli, and therefore corrupt politics and ideology. Despite
some modern critics, such as David Fry, who propagate the idea that Machiavelli
was actually a philosophical man with advanced political ideas (for example in Discourses on
the First Ten Books of Titus Livius Machiavelli seems to advocate
republicanism) Machiavelli is still associated with corrupt, totalitarian
politics as he was in Renaissance England. Much of the drama produced in this
period featured a Machiavellian villain, for example Mortimer Junior in
Marlowe’s Edward II and Edmund in King Lear by William
Shakespeare.

As
noted above in the biographical section of the introduction, Rawlins worked for
the Royal Mint before and during the English Civil War, and fled to France when England became a republic in 1649. Can one therefore presume then that Rawlins’
“opposition to … courtly values” did not extend to an opposition of hereditary
rule? In The Rebellion the King is enraged when he is referred to by his
Christian name rather than his title: “Philip? Traitor, why not King? I am so.”
(V.3.27).Yes, Philip is the King and, even by today’s social standards,
would expect to be referred to as such. Yet later in the scene when he asks the
(rhetorical) question “I’st not my right? Was not I heir to Spain?” (V.3.170) it shows that the true reason for the King’s anger was that Machvile, or indeed
anyone, should dare to challenge him or his rule.

Philip
sees his kingship as a ‘divine right’, which as I showed earlier was an idea propagated
by both James I and Charles I. The idea of ‘Divine Right’ suggested that Kings
were God’s representatives on Earth and when King Philip refers to his crown as
a “balsam” (V.3.169), a flowering plant, the reader is reminded of the crown of
thorns that Jesus wore whilst on the crucifix. This in turn emphasises the
(supposed) link between God and Royalty. This idea was prevalent in England at this time and explains why Machvile and his co-conspirators all had to
perish in The Rebellion – they were going against the natural order: in
plotting against the King they were plotting against God.

In my opinion it is impossible to see Philip as anything but as a bad King. Spain is under attack from France, an army massively superior in terms of skill, position
and number, but he is absent throughout the majority of the play. The King does
not appear until Act Four Scene 5 when he is talking to the Old Tailor, Evadne
and Aurelia and neither of the ladies are aware of the identity of the person
they are speaking to. Yes, one would not expect to see the King with a tailor
but their complete oblivion suggests that Philip is not a public figure, which
during war, if not at any other time, he should be.

One
could argue that Philip is away fighting during the early scenes of the play
but this is never clarified. Even if this is the case, Philip leaves his
country under the rule of an ineffective Governor who is easily persuaded by
Machvile that the honourable Antonio is plotting against him, which suggests a
gullibility and weakness of character, not characteristics one associates with
a leader! When the Governor is killed, Machvile is named as his successor, as
ordered by the King. One therefore has to question how a King can be so oblivious
to the true characters of the people he has not only surrounded himself with,
but put in positions of immense power. If Machvile represents Machiavellian
politics and the corruption and treachery associated with it, then I have to
argue that Philip represents all that is wrong with hereditary rule – he is an
incompetent ruler, unaware of plots against him and his county and even when he
witnesses Machvile’s plotting in the final scene of the play it is as if he
still does not understand what he is saying. Is this because Philip is shocked
that someone should challenge his rule, which suggests a level off arrogance,
or rather, does it suggest a slowness of wit in Philip? Both are negative
characteristics, especially in a King, but despite his failings Philip’s position
is affirmed at the end of the play, unquestioned by the characters and therefore
arguably by Rawlins.

ii)
What it Means to Be Female in The Rebellion

Another theme explored in The Rebellion, is the idea of female power and
sexuality, developed through the characters Evadne, Aurelia, Auristella and
Philippa. I wish to explore each character individually and how Rawlins develops
this theme though them before commenting on female roles in the play overall.

Auristella
is the wife of Machvile, the play’s main villain, and there are clear parallels
between their characters; Machvile says “our souls are twins” (III.2.24) and it
is this idea that I wish to comment on. Auristella’s violent death can be seen
as the obvious consequence of her involvement with the plot against the King; a
justified punishment for violating the natural order. However, in light of the
above quote, I think it is possible to see Auristella’s murder as the death
sentence for being too similar to Machvile, that is, too masculine.
Auristella’s ambition to be Queen is so extensive that she would kill her own
family (III.2.16-23)and her speeches eloquent and intelligent. These
are all characteristics that would have been associated with masculinity in the
Renaissance. The best way I can explain this idea is to comment on
Shakespeare’s treatment of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth prompts her husband to
commit murder by questioning his masculinity by saying he lacks determination
and the ability to commit violent acts. She says if she were ‘unsexed’, i.e. a
man, she would have no difficulty in killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth can be seen
to straddle traditional gender roles – she has the ambition but not the ability
to carry out actual violence like a man; going insane can be seen as being her
punishment. Lady Macbeth is seen by many critics as the most vile and
frightening of Shakespeare’s female characters and I believe this is because of
her masculine characteristics. Auristella goes against the natural order not
only by plotting against Philip, but also by trying to transgress from her
ordained gender role, and it for this that she has to be punished.

This
is also true for Philippa. Whilst Auristella’s soul i.e. her nature, is like
Machvile’s, Phillipa is Raymond’s “twin of war” (I.3.6) – Philippa and her
husband are alike in war i.e. the actual committing of violence. Philippa is
constantly compared to warriors but initially always with a reference to her femininity;
she is an Amazon, a Governess of Arms, a female Bradamante. Philippa is
actively involved in the fighting and does kill a soldier in the course of the play
(II.4.103-4). I think it noteworthy that it is at this point that the Spanish
Colonels refer to her “masculine spirit” (II.4.75) – by committing actual
violence she has crossed firmly over to the male world and this is why she is
punished. Philippa is poisoned and also loses her sanity; is this a dual
punishment because she not only thinks like a man but acts like a man – she is
ambitious and she acts on her ambition? One would expect the poison Philippa is
given to have purely physical effects rather than affect her mental wellbeing
as well. Philippa’s insanity can also be seen as the result of the guilt she
feels, as is the case with Lady Macbeth. Philippa may have entered the masculine
world but her female psyche cannot deal with her male actions. Philippa
punishes herself (i.e. through losing her sanity through guilt) and is punished
by society because she is too masculine for the Renaissance world (i.e. by
being murdered).

Whilst
Lady Macbeth and Auristella straddle the gender spheres – they may think like
men but they ultimately remain ‘female’. With Philippa however Rawlins explores
the idea of gender roles further. Philippa becomes ‘male’, and embodies all the
ambition, violence and cruelty one can associate with it. Of course Philippa is
punished for this so Rawlins can be seen as supporting the status quo, but I
think he should be applauded for his demonstration of Philippa. Women were
always seen to act on an emotional rather than logical level.
Whilst Philippa is by no means a traditionally sympathetically character,
Rawlins presents us with a female character who has male characteristics, who
is a successful – indeed brilliant – soldier, who is logical, brave, skilful
and, when engaged in combat, acts honourably.

Aurelia
may be the most minor of the female characters but I find her rather interesting.
Aurelia saves Antonio, the play’s hero, twice; initially in Act Three Scene 3
when she saves him, literally, from Death, and then again in Act 4 Scene 3 when
she helps him escape from Filford Mill, where he was to be executed. Aurelia
loves Antonio because of his honourable reputation which she has learned of
from her brother. Antonio loves her because he believes her to be an angel who has
saved him. Their love is the most pure of all the relationships in the play but
yet both characters are ultimately punished. Antonio dies and Rawlins uses
Christian reasoning to justify Antonio’s death: “Blood/ Must have blood; so
speaks the law of Heaven” (V.3.144-5)and Aurelia is ordered join a
convent and spend her life in “religious prayer” (V.3.205). Aurelia is seen to
be honourable and dutiful when she readily agrees saying it was “a fault/ To
break the bonds of duty and law”(V.3.206-7) by helping Antonio escape
from the Mill. I think it interesting to note that the word duty comes before
law. Antonio’s death was ordered by Machvile, the acting Governor of Spain, yet
Aurelia acknowledges her duty to her father first. In Renaissance literature the
private (domestic) sphere was the female one, whilst men belonged in the public
sphere of politics, war and, for the lower classes, employment. Aurelia betrays
her father by not killing Antonio but, like Machvile and the other
conspirators, she has also betrayed the natural order; she entered the public
world of politics and violence and, like Philippa and Auristella, ultimately
has to be punished for it.

At
this point I wish briefly to look at how religion is portrayed in The
Rebellion, where there are two characters whose ‘punishment’ is either
justified by religion or, in the case of Aurelia, whose punishment is
religion. The play opens with three characters discussing Antonio’s positive
attributes – his honour, his bravery, his ability as a soldier; arguably
Antonio is the Renaissance ideal of positive manhood, yet his death is
portrayed as inevitable and justified because the Bible dictates it; an eye for
an eye. Aurelia who is chaste, virtuous and loyal to her love for Antonio, is
punished because she went against her father’s will and is forced to become a
nun. Petruchio believes she has done wrong so how can it be possible to see his
ordering her to join a convent as anything but the consequence of her wrong
doing? Earlier in the play Sebastiano refers to kneeling at the altar as a
“superstitious / Rite”(I.2.158-9), a reference to the Puritan campaign
against conformist practices, but Evadne challenges him for kneeling before her
saying it is a “ceremony due to none but Heaven” (I.2.162). I think this
exchange between Sebastiano and Evadne can be seen as a concentrated reference
to the internal religious struggle present in Renaissance England.

Is
Rawlins using The Rebellion to argue that the religious turmoil that had
existed in England since Henry VIII’s reign is actually eroding religion in England? That Christianity was ultimately being torn into two (if not more) separate belief
systems and consequently destroying social unity and people’s belief systems? In
The Rebellion we have a couple divided by their religious beliefs (one
has to question how this will affect the upbringing of their children) and
another couple punished because religious beliefs dictate that they must be. I
think one could convincingly argue that religion is portrayed as a negative
thing in The Rebellion, but if this is your interpretation you would also
have to argue that Philip is portrayed as a weak King to challenge the idea of
Divine Right. As I stated above I do think that would be a valid reading of the
play but remember that Rawlins was an employee of the Crown and therefore would
have been putting himself in a very difficult and potentially dangerous
position. It could just be that only a modern, less overtly religious, audience
could argue that Antonio’s death cannot be justified using just religious
ideology, or that joining a convent can be seen as a negative experience but I
think it is possible to read The Rebellion as a subversive critique of
religion during the Renaissance and that one should not disregard this whilst
reading the play.

Evadne
is the only female character in The Rebellion who is not seen to be punished.
As a well-born and beautiful lady she is wooed ineffectually by several Spanish
aristocrats. Instead she fall in love with her tailor, ‘Giovanno’, despite the
fact that as his true self i.e. Sebastiano, he was one of the many she said no
to. I think that one therefore has to question what this says about Evadne and also
the validity of Evadne and Sebastiano’s later marriage. Firstly, does Evade
love ‘Giovanno’ because she knows that she should not, or because in this
relationship, as his social superior, she would be the one with power? Neither
are positive reasons, and the latter suggests that Evadne craves power in a
similar way as Philippa and Auristella, who are punished by death for this
‘crime’. It is impossible to have a definite and ultimate answer as to why
Evadne is so infatuated with ‘Giovanno’, but ultimately the question is
fruitless because ‘Giovanno’ is revealed to be Sebastiano and this is why
Evadne goes unpunished. Her ‘crimes’ of falling in love with a social inferior,
betraying her duty to her family and her brother’s wishes become non-existent
when ‘Giovanno’ reveals his true identity.

As
in a comedy, Sebastiano and Evadne’s marriage represents the restoration of
social harmony and social continuity. But how stable is their union? As his
true self Sebastiano was unable to win Evadne’s heart so their union is
threatened from the beginning. As shown in the section entitled ‘Contemporary
Topical Issues’ the partnership between Charles I and Parliament was unstable
from the start of Charles’ reign. I think it is possible to see Evadne and
Sebastiano’s relationship as a reflective commentary on the relationship
between King and Parliament at the time when Rawlins was writing. Evadne, as an
aristocrat, represents royalty and the old feudal system whilst Sebastiano, in
his ready friendship with the tailors and as ‘Giovanno’, represents Parliament and
republicanism. Evadne and Sebastiano’s unsteady union represents a threat to
social harmony just as the relationship between Charles and Parliament
threatened social harmony in England. Remember that just five years after the
play was written England was engaged in Civil War – there was no continuity in England anymore: the union between King (Evadne) and Parliament (Sebastiano) has
irrevocably split.

The
character of Evadne is also used to comment on sexuality. There are references
to sexual acts from the onset of the play, as seen in the references to
Syphilis in the first scene of the play and the sexual connotations of Sebastiano’s
speech when he says he will be punished by Clap because of his lustful thoughts(I.2.95) There is no doubt in the audience’s mind that Evadne is chaste yet
her brother asks her “are your favours grown prostitute to all” (II.2 65-6)
when he sees her kissing Antonio. When Evadne is kidnapped by the Bandits in
Act 4 Scene 1, Sebastiano is quick to believe she is “fly-blown” (IV.2.82),
i.e. Evadne is no longer a virgin. A modern audience would most likely be
outraged by Sebastiano attitude but remember the prevailing fear of being
humiliated by being cuckolded by one’s wife and the epidemic proportions of
Syphilis during the sixteenth century.

Whilst
carrying out research for this project however I found some information about
rape trials carried out in England in the seventeenth century. In Shakespeare
Without Women: Representing Race and Gender on the Renaissance Stage
Callaghan quotes from Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud,
where Laqueur explains how during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it
was believed that female orgasm was thought to be necessary for conception[2].
Consequently if a woman conceived during rape she must have reached orgasm and
therefore must have consented. In his book Laqueur quotes from Quaife’s Wanted
Wenches and Wayward Wives, which explains how the above idea was used by magistrates
during rape trials, leading to many acquittals[3].
This inevitably had an effect on people’s perception of rape i.e. it could be a
pleasurable experience for women. Sebastiano believes Evadne was raped but it
is his inability to know whether or not she was a ‘willing victim’ that causes
his emotional turmoil. In her book Women and the English Renaissance:
Literature and the Nature of Womankind 1540 – 1620 Woodbridge explains “chastity
was the absolute demand made on virtuous womanhood[4]”.
Even if Sebastiano believes Evadne was a victim she is no longer chaste and
therefore no longer virtuous and it is that that Sebastiano struggles to
forgive her for. The play suggested and my research confirmed that there was a
fine line during the Renaissance between being chaste and being unchaste; by
kissing Antonio and being a ‘willing’ rape victim Evadne could easily have been
classified as the latter.

Therefore
in The Rebellion I believe it is impossible to see the female characters
as anything but victims. They are punished for being ambitious, for being
brave, for being in love, for being victims. A woman cannot live in the male
world without being destroyed by guilt or punished by society and she cannot
exist in the private sphere without the potential of being a victim and being
punished for that. In her book Woodbridge quotes from An Apologie for
Women-Kinde published in 1605, where I.G. says that “Those mannish queans
are most degenerate” when he is discussing female soldiers[5].
Woodbridge explains how “scenes set in wartime in the drama of the 1590’s are
permeated with a sense of sexual chaos. Women have become associated with war[6]”,
- for example in Shakespeare’s King John. The negative connotations
contained in the dramas and the confused feelings that this new idea invoked in
the audience and society inevitably led to feelings such as those expressed by
I.G.

In
this context it perhaps understandable why Rawlins felt that Philippa had to
perish. Woodbridge goes onto explain how during the Renaissance it was feared
that “armed with the governing skills acquired in their own households, they
(i.e. women) might advance into the political arena[7]”.
John Knox, writing in the mid sixteenth century made a direct link between the
number of female European rulers and “widespread failure to heed biblical
injunctions towards wifely subjection”[8]
, explaining why Philippa, Auristella and, to an extent, Aurelia have to be
seem to be published – by entering the public sphere they threaten the natural
order and encourage all women to step out of the domestic sphere. James I was a
pacifist meaning that many soldiers had no relevant social role anymore. Men
were being emasculated at a time when women were being seen to be entering the
public world. In seventeenth century England this alarmed many people from all
social groups and Rawlins can be seen to be responding to that i.e. if a woman
strays from the domestic sphere she will be punished and therefore is it not
better for her to do as God intended and stay in the domestic, female world.
Many conduct books published in this era advocate the same idea as do other
literary works, and The Rebellion can be seen to be adhering to this
trend.

iii)
Background Information On What It Meant To Be A Tailor In Elizabethan and
Jacobean England

Just before concluding this section I wish to give some information which may
help you understand the opinions of tailors conveyed by the other characters. Throughout
The Rebellion there is the prevailing idea of things not being as they
seem – Sebastiano is in disguise throughout the play as Giovanno and later as a
French tailor, Aurelia and Antonio dress as hermits, Antonio dresses as a
physician, Machvile tricks the Governor into challenging Antonio and pretends
to be in alliance with Raymond whilst secretly plotting to kill him as well as
the King, the Brave hides under a table cloth and this all links to fashion /
clothing. In their book Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory,Jones and Stallybrass explain how the cliché ‘clothes make the man’ was
truly a frightening idea in the Renaissance. They quote from Stephen Orgal who
said “what allows boys to be substituted for women in the theatre…[is]
precisely the costume, and more particularly, cultural assumptions about
costumes” (Jones and Stallybrass: 2). One must remember at this time different
social classes wore different colours and different materials, and there was a
genuine fear that a member of the lower classes could pretend to be of a higher
social class, a fear that one could never be truly certain that people really
were who they said they were. The obvious people to blame for this were
tailors; they made it possible for people to disguise themselves. Puritans also
propagated the idea that an interest in fashion meant that one was proud and
vain and therefore evil. During the Renaissance tailors were seen as being
sexually ambiguous and this idea can be seen in Sebastaino’s speech in Act 1
Scene 2, lines 45-67, and as go-betweens as seen when Raymond asks Philippa if Sebastiano,
when he is disguised as her tailor, is an “eavesdropper” (IV.7.24)There
was also the popular idea that tailors were much weaker than the average man,
that they were small and thin. Apparently when eighteen tailors attended Queen
Elizabeth, she welcomed them by saying ‘good morning, gentleman both’, a
reference to the proverb ‘nine tailors make a man’.

I
hope that this information helps explain why the colonels are so disgusted when
Sebastiano captures Raymond and why they refer to him as a “mechanic slave” (II.4.125)and so on. Also as to why the tailors are so eager to make their name as
brave soldiers and later as skilled actors, and why the Old tailor is so
honoured that the King is going to make it know that he has been a guest of the
tailors: they want their trade to be seen as a skill, for them to be seen as
equal to other traders and not derided by society. The play closes with a
speech by the King saying he would be poor if it was not for his loyal
subjects. As a playwright tailors would have provided an invaluable service for
Rawlins – upper class people sold their clothes to acting troupes, costumes had
to be altered or made so perhaps Rawlins was just perhaps paying them a
lip-service, but alternatively perhaps he wanted the audience, and society as a
whole, to see how irrational this stereotype was and that is why he made a
tailor the hero of the play.

This
section is by no means an exhaustive exploration of the play’s major themes – I
do not have room for that here – but I hope it ignites your imagination and
helps you see possible ways in which it is possible to read the play – as a
commentary on the social turmoil facing England, the internal religious battle
resulting from the determination to split one religion into different factions
for political, social and arguably petty reasons, as a conduct book for women –
a warning what to happen to them if they try to move out of their ordained
sphere. I am also inclined to argue that as the only characters who speak
predominantly in verse, who are eloquent and passionate, who make the audience
sit up and take notice are the conspirators, that the play is a celebration of
the villain. They are all punished, there is no escaping from that, but ask
yourself when you finish the play who your favourite character is and I
guarantee it will be one of the conspirators. Again, does this mean that
Rawlins is criticising the King and the status quo? Only you can decide what
you personally believe. I have my opinion, but it is now time for you to read
and the play and form your opinion – after all that is what the study of
literature is all about.

Parallels
with Other Renaissance Literary Works and Traditions

The
Renaissance saw a departure from religious ideology dominating, and repressing,
intellectual and creative thought and production, and a return to classical
learning and a revival of the arts, including drama which followed Aristotle’s
principles, and contained frequent references to classical Gods and mythology,
which often provided the plots for Early Modern plays. The Rebellion is
littered with reference to a mixture of Greek and Roman Gods – an error made by
several Renaissance writers – as well as classic mythology such as the stories of
Hercules. This was a simple and easy way for Renaissance writers to associate
their works with classic, great, literature. Rawlins sometimes appears to
overly rely on classical mythology and in some instances it is ill-applied, for
example when Philippa refers to Raymond waving to the city’s axletree
(III.4.5); does Rawlins think it is an actual tree that Atlas used to hold up
the Heavens and that there was more than one or is the verse simply poorly
written, creating confusion as to what Rawlins means?

The
return to classical teachings led to the production of the first English
tragedies (they were preceded by morality and miracle plays in the Medieval
Age), which explored the themes of murder, cruelty, lust for the first time on
the English stage. Tragedies consisted of five acts, were written in blank
verse and traditionally the violence was not acted onstage, merely referred to.
The Rebellion is in five acts and is written mainly in, albeit not
perfect, iambic pentameter. Prose first appeared on the English stage in 1566
in George Gascoigne’s play Supposes and Rawlins employs both styles with
a mixture of success. Antonio is honourable, brave and eloquent like the
average Renaissance hero whilst, as noted above, Machvile is the typical
Renaissance Machiavellian villain.

Towards
the end of James I’s reign Spanish literature became better known in England
and other popular writers drew on Spanish sources or based their plays in
Spain, such as Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy. Setting their plays in France or Spain allowed writers to safely comment on the religious tensions gripping England or discuss contemporary political and social topics without the risk of having
their work censored or worse, being classed as a traitorous. Some critics say
that Rawlins sets his play in Spain merely because it was what was popular at
the time[9]
and Rawlins does make a reference to The Spanish Tragedy in Act V Scene
2 so he was obviously aware of other popular works set abroad. However as I
have shown it is possible to read The Rebellion as a commentary on both
the political and religious atmosphere of early modern England and Rawlins
would have been foolish to not set it abroad. How could one, in Renaissance
England, even contemplate writing a play about the overthrowing of a King and
set it in England? The play would never have made it to the stage and Rawlins
could have taken before Council to explain and perhaps plead for his life.

It
is possible to see comparisons with other popular Renaissance plays but I am
going to focus on making parallels with plays by William Shakespeare, which
most people will be familiar with.

Othello, which was
written around 1604 and published in 1622, sees Shakespeare employing a black
protagonist to explore the themes of otherness and alienation but why is
Raymond black in The Rebellion, other than for the reason that the protagonist
of a popular play, written by the most significant playwright the English stage
had ever seen, was? There are only three references to Raymond being a Moor in
the play and none of them are made to comment on his physical attributes or his
strength as a soldier, as in Othello. Both Othello and Raymond are brave
and prestigious warriors and like Shakespeare’s Othello who, despite saying he
“have not those soft parts of conversations” (III.3.268), makes many eloquent
speeches, Raymond too makes passionate speeches to his soldiers and emotive
ones to his wife. Rawlins evidently respected many of the qualities that
Othello has but there is no apparent reason why he made Raymond black;
Raymond’s race has no effect on the plot or the play’s themes.

Macbeth, written around
1606 and first published in 1623, like The Rebellion, considers the idea
of things not being as they seem, with the witches declaring in the first act
that you cannot trust anything or anyone; everything has a hidden element. In The
Rebellion Machvile is the King’s right-hand man, but is plotting against
him, Antonio, Aurelia and Sebastiano are all in disguise during the course of
the play and there are several instances of characters hiding in order to
eavesdrop.

Like
Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Macbeth deals with the issues of gender
and violence. Lady Macbeth questions her husband’s masculinity because he
hesitates when she tells him to kill Duncan and she says if she were ‘unsexed’
i.e. not a woman, she would kill Duncan herself. A powerful, violent and ambitious
female character obviously has links with The Rebellion, but in Rawlins’
play femininity is not a barrier to achieving one’s ambition; Rawlins’ female
characters transcend gender. As in Macbeth and Coriolanus the
‘masculine’ females in The Rebellion are seen as degenerate and abnormal
and like Lady Macbeth they are punished for it.

There
are also minor comparisons with other Shakespeare plays. Antonio makes a casual
reference to the enmity between his and Sebastiano’s family (IV.4.51-6),but
it was never given as a reason as to why Sebastiano did not successfully woo
Evadne. Antonio also says it was his father’s last wish that his and
Sebastiano’s family never be joined through marriage yet he promptly dismisses
the idea, which is a great contrast to his reaction to Evadne and Sebastiano’s
embrace when he accuses her of slighting their dead parent’s memory. It almost
seems like an afterthought, as if Rawlins suddenly remembered Romeo and
Juliet and the hostility between the Capulets and the Montagues. The
hostility between the families was the foundation of Shakespeare’s play but
there was no need for Rawlins to divide Sebastiano and Evadne by yet another
factor.

In
Act II Scene 1 of The Rebellion, when Antonio refuses to say anything at
counsel, one should be reminded of Cordelia and King Lear’s exchange in Act I
Scene 1 in Shakespeare’s King Lear. Cordelia, unlike her sisters Regan
and Goneril, refuses to make an extravagant speech detailing her love for her
father, because she believes this demeans not only herself but also her love
for Lear. Regan and Goneril’s speeches are so opulent that, to a reader, they
are overtly false. Cordelia’s love is pure, the genuine result of the sense of
honour and duty she feels towards her father, and she refuses to use her love as
a bargaining tool to secure her share of the kingdom. In The Rebellion Antonio’s
sense of duty and love is towards his country and his King and that is why he
refuses to respond to Machvile’s appalling war plan. Machvile’s plan would lead
the Spanish soldiers to almost certain death but if the Spanish Colonels have
realised the false nature of Machvile’s speeches, Antonio certainly will have.
Machvile’s speech are so evidently “studied” (II.1.58), and therefore his sense
of loyalty to Spain so obviously false, that Antonio’s honour will not allow
him to respond to them. This is parallel to why Cordelia refuses to match the
tone of Regan and Goneril’s speeches.

Act
V Scene 1 of The Rebellion also has a startling resemblance to the
carnage we see in the last scene of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. As stated
above it was not the classical tradition for violence to be acted on the stage
yet Rawlins clearly favoured Shakespeare’s popularity over literary tradition!

There
is a startling resemblance between Virmine and A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s
Bottom, especially in the language Virmine uses, his self-aggrandizing speeches
and nature, his desire to fill all the parts in the tailor’s play in Act V
Scene 2, and the overt, slapstick humour he introduces to the play. However
Virmine’s ready willingness to let the tailors have the minor part as long as
he can play the King suggests a sly intelligence that Bottom did not have.
Obviously there is the link between the tailors in The Rebellion forming
an amateur acting troupe and the craftsmen in A Midsummer’s Night Dream
doing the same. Unfortunately we never see the tailors’ play in The
Rebellion but as the tailors say very little perhaps, with the exception of
Virmine and the Old Tailor (who has not involved in the play anyway) they were
not accomplished enough to be the play’s focus for a significant period of
time.

The
thematic comparisons with Shakespeare are evident but it does not mean that
Rawlins was simply trying to mimic the most prolific writer of the time. In
Renaissance England politics, gender and religion were important contemporary
issues and explored by many dramatists and writers – we cannot accuse them all
of copying Shakespeare. It is aspects such as unnecessarily having a black character
or a grudge between the two main characters that I find disheartening. Rawlins,
whether rightly or wrongly, did not have enough confidence in his own writing
to feel that his play could stand on its own merit, without having unnecessary similarities
to the plays by the period’s major playwright. Rawlins obviously wanted to
comment on important social issues but I am not convinced that he had the
artistic ability to do so well.

Another
parallel with a popular, contemporary play, is that Evadne shares her name with
the heroine of The Maid’s Tragedy by Beaumont and Fletcher. The
Maid’s Tragedy was written around 1610, after the assassination of Henry IV
of France in 1610, but not published until 1619. The play, a revenge tragedy
with many parallels to Shakespeare’s Hamlet (as emphasised by Sandra
Clark), was hugely successful and popular, until it was banned by Charles II,
presumably because of the scene where Evadne kills the King as he lies in bed[10].
The Maid’s Tragedy’s Evadne bears little similarity to Rawlins’ chaste,
mostly passive, heroine. Why, therefore, did Rawlins decide to call his heroine
Evadne? Is it a further example of Rawlins willingness to try and take
advantage of another playwright’s success and of his inability to produce a
remotely original piece of drama? However I think one should remember that there
are numerous references to Greek and Roman Gods and myths throughout the play
and in Greek mythology there is a woman named Evadne, whose husband, Capaneus,
is killed in the Trojan War. Evadne throws herself onto her husband’s funeral
pyre and burns with him[11].
I think it is more likely that Rawlins wanted his Renaissance audience to make
comparisons with this example of virtuous, obedient womanhood, rather than the
murderous, adulterous and corrupt female that Fletcher and Beaumont portray in The
Maid’s Tragedy.

Editorial
Techniques / Decisions and Problems Experienced.

vI
have silently standardised and modernised all spellings and punctuation i.e.
the accidentals, to help the modern readers. However words such as thee, thou
and hath etc have been retained as The Rebellion is a Renaissance play
and should be read as such. Any words that are now obscure or rare are
explained in the Glossary and Notes.

vAll
words have been left in the original order. However the play is described as
being “partly in verse” and through the play I have tried to create iambic
pentameter where appropriate through re-lineation. Iambic pentameter is verse
that is ten beats per line, with a pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables. Iambic Pentameter should be used when a romantic or intelligent
though is being conveyed and always by the upper classes, except if they are
talking to or pretending to be working class or their departure from verse
signals an unstable state of mind.

Rawlins does not seem to understand or is not interested in this literary rule
so as an editor it has been a difficult and sometime impossible task to create
perfect verse. I have tried to create the illusion of verse where it should
have been employed but the lines do not always consist of ten beats as they
should. Therefore I ask the reader to remember the principles of when iambic
pentameter should be used and not let the imperfect verse hinder their
enjoyment of the play.

The only time I have not employed re-lineation is where Rawlins has used
rhyming couplets as this would obviously remove the impact that Rawlins had
tried to create, for example Cupid’s speech (III.3.23-44).

vThroughout
the play I have used the spellings of the characters’ names as it appears in
the Dramatis Personae. For example in the original text Machvile is also spelt
Machville and Machvil. It is likely that Rawlins meant Machiavelli, or at least
wanted the reader to make the connection between his villain and the
arch-villain of the period.

vIn
the original text Sebastiano is referred to as Giovanno in all the stage
directions etc. I have changed them all to Sebastiano as that is his real name.
When he enters I have stated whether he is dressed as Giovanno or the French
tailor.

vI
have added or modified stage directions where necessary to enable the reader or
any potential performers to be able to visualise how the play would have been
performed in 1637.

vIn
the later scenes of the play Virmine is referred to as either Tailor 2 or
Tailor 3 in the stage directions. I have amended this to Virmine when the
language used / topic of conversation suggested that it was Virmine speaking
rather than one of the other, minor Tailors.

The Rebellion

By Thomas
Rawlins

To the
Worshipful, and his honoured kinsman, Robert Ducie of Aston, in the County of Stafford Esquire: Son to Sir Robert Ducie, Knight and Baronet Deceased

Dramatis
Personae

King of Spain
Governor of Spain

Antonio, a Count

Machvile, a Count

Alerzo, a Spanish
Colonel

Fulgentio, a Spanish
Colonel

Pandolpho, a Spanish
Colonel

Evadne, Antonio’s
sister
Auristella, Machvile’s wife

Nurse, Evadne’s
attendant

Raymond, Moore General
of the French Army

Firenzo, a French
Colonel

Gilberty, a French
Colonel

Leonis, a French
Colonel

Philippa, Raymond’s
wife

Petruchio, Governor of
Filford

Sebastiano, Petruchio’s
son, disguised as a tailor called Giovanno

Old Tailor

Virmine, Old Tailor’s
man

Three Tailors

Aurelia, Petruchio’s
daughter

Attendants

Captain of the Bandetty

Cupid
A Brave

A Judge

Two Ruffians

Officers
Soldiers

Setting

Seville,
Spain

Alerzo

Fulgentio

Alerzo

Pandolpho

Alerzo

Pandolpho

Fulgentio

Pandolpho

Alerzo

Fulgentio

Pandolpho

Alerzo

Fulgentio

Machvile

Antonio

Fulgentio

Alerzo

Pandolpho

Antonio

Fulgentio

Antonio

Alerzo

Pandolpho

Fulgentio

Alerzo

Machvile

Evadne

Nurse

Evadne

Nurse

Evadne

Nurse

Evadne

Nurse

Evadne

Nurse

Evadne

Nurse

Evadne

Nurse

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Nurse

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Nurse

Sebastiano

Nurse

Sebastiano

Evadne

Nurse

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Nurse

Evadne

Sebastiano

Antonio

Evadne

Antonio

Evadne

Raymond

Leonis

Gilberty

Firenzo

Raymond

Philippa

Raymond

Colonels

Philippa

Raymond

Sebastiano

Old Tailor

Virmine

Old
Tailor

Virmine

Tailor
1

Virmine

Old
Tailor

Virmine

Sebastiano

Old
Tailor

Sebastiano

Tailor
2

Virmine

Sebastiano

Governor

Machvile

Governor

Machvile

Governor

Machvile

Governor

Machvile

Fulgentio

Alerzo

Pandolpho

Governor

Machvile

Governor

Antonio

Governor

Antonio

Machvile

Governor

Antonio

Governor

Antonio

Machvile

Antonio

Governor

Antonio

Alerzo

Fulgentio

Governor

Antonio

Alerzo

Fulgentio

Governor

Machvile

Antonio

Fulgentio

Alerzo

Governor

Antonio

Governor

Antonio

Machvile

Fulgentio

Alerzo

Fulgentio

Governor

Antonio

Governor

Machvile

Antonio

Alerzo

Fulgentio

Alerzo

Antonio

Machvile

Sebastiano

Nurse

Sebastiano

Nurse

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Nurse

Sebastiano

Evadne

Nurse

Sebastiano

Nurse

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Antonio

Evadne

Antonio

Sebastiano

Antonio

Sebastiano

Antonio

Machvile

Evadne

Sebastiano

Machvile

Antonio

Machvile

Evadne

Officer
1

Machvile

Sebastiano

Antonio

Sebastiano

Antonio

Sebastiano

Antonio

Sebastiano

Antonio

Sebastiano

Old
Tailor

Antonio

Old
Tailor

Sebastiano

Old
Tailor

Antonio

Old
Tailor

Raymond

Gilberty

Raymond

Gilberty

Leonis

Raymond

Gilberty

Leonis

Raymond

Leonis

Raymond

Soldier
1

Raymond

Soldier
2

Raymond

Soldier
2

Raymond

Machvile

Philippa

Alonzo

Fulgentio

Pandolpho

Raymond

Sebastiano

Raymond

Philippa

Raymond

Philippa

Raymond

Philippa

Raymond

Machvile

Raymond

Machvile

Sebastiano

Alerzo

Fulgentio

Sebastiano

Alerzo

Sebastiano

Fulgentio

Sebastiano

Fulgentio

Sebastiano

Alerzo

Sebastiano

The
colonels

Sebastiano

The
colonels

Machvile

Raymond

Tailors

Sebastiano

Alerzo

Fulgentio

Machvile

Sebastiano

Machville

Sebastiano

Machvile

Sebastiano

Alerzo

Sebastiano

Fulgentio

Sebastiano

Fulgentio

Alerzo

Sebastiano

Machvile

Fulgentio

Old
Tailor

Virmine

Tailor
1

Virmine

Old
Tailor

Virmine

Old
Tailor

Machvile

Auristella

Machvile

Auristella

Machvile

Auristella

Machvile

Auristella

Machvile

Auristella

Machvile

Auristella

Machvile

Auristella

Machvile

Antonio

Cupid

Sebastiano

Old
Tailor

Sebastiano

Antonio

Sebastiano

Antonio

Old
Tailor

Antonio

Old
Tailor

Sebastiano

Old
Tailor

Antonio

Old
Tailor

Sebastiano

Old
Tailor

Antonio

Sebastiano

Antonio

Old
Tailor

Philippa

Raymond

Philippa

Raymond

Philippa

Raymond

Philippa

Judge

Antonio

Aurelia

Petruchio

Aurelia

Antonio

Petruchio

Aurelia

Sebastiano

Evadne

Captain

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Sebastiano

Captain

Trotter

Captain

Evadne

Captain

Bandit
1

Trotter

Captain

Trotter

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Petruchio

Aurelia

Petruchio

Aurelia

Petruchio

Aurelia

Petruchio

Aurelia

Antonio

Aurelia

Antonio

Aurelia

Antonio

Aurelia

Antonio

Aurelia

Antonio

Aurelia

Antonio

Aurelia

Antonio

Aurelia

Antonio

Petruchio

Evadne

Antonio

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

Antonio

Evadne

Aurelia

Antonio

Evadne

Aurelia

Antonio

Sebastiano

Antonio

Aurelia

Evadne

Sebastiano

Antonio

Tailor
1

Virmine

Tailor
2

Tailor
1

Virmine

Tailor
1

All
tailors

Old
Tailor

Antonio

Sebastiano

Old
Tailor

Antonio

Old
Tailor

The
King

Aurelia

The
King

Evadne

The
King

Old
Tailor

The
King

Antonio

Machvile

Antonio

Machvile

Antonio

Machvile

Antonio

Machvile

Antonio

Auristella

Antonio

Machvile

Antonio

Machvile

Auristella

Machvile

Auristella

Machvile

Antonio

Machvile

Antonio

Machvile

Auristella

Antonio

Auristella

Antonio

Auristella

Antonio

Auristella

Antonio

Auristella

Antonio

Auristella

Antonio

Sebastiano

Philippa

Sebastiano

Philippa

Sebastiano

Philippa

Raymond

Sebastiano

Philippa

Sebastiano

Raymond

Sebastiano

Raymond

Sebastiano

Fulgentio

Raymond

Sebastiano

The
King

Old
Tailor

The
King

Old
Tailor

The
King

Antonio

The
King

Antonio

Evadne

Sebastiano

Evadne

Sebastiano

The
King

Sebastiano

The
King

Antonio

The
King

Old
Tailor

Virmine

Old
Tailor

Tailor
1

Virmine

Tailor
2

Tailor
3

Virmine

Tailor
2

Tailor
1

Tailor
2

Virmine

Tailor
2

Virmine

Tailor
2

Tailor
1

Virmine

Tailor
1

Virmine

Tailor
1

Tailor
2

Virmine

Tailor
2

Virmine

Tailor
1

Virmine

Tailor
1

Virmine

Tailor
1

Virmine

Tailor
2

Virmine

Tailor
1

Tailor
2

Virmine

Tailor
2

Virmine

Tailor
1

Virmine

Tailor
2

Virmine

Tailor
2

Virmine

Tailor
1

Virmine

Brave

Machvile

Raymond

Philippa

Aurelia

Antonio

Philippa

The
King

Antonio

Fulgentio

Alerzo

Pandolpho

Auristella

Philippa

Aurelia

Machvile

The
King

Antonio

Machvile

The
King

Fulgentio

Alerzo

Auristella

Fulgentio

Antonio

Auristella

Raymond

Sebastiano

French
Colonels

The
King

Machvile

Raymond

Sebastiano

Machvile

Raymond

Auristella

Raymond

Alerzo

Fulgentio

Pandolpho

Philippa

Auristella

Philippa

The
Brave

Philippa

Auristella

Machvile

Antonio

Machvile

The
King

Evadne

Sebastiano

Aurelia

Antonio

Machvile

The
King

Petruchio

The
King

Petruchio

The
King

Petruchio

The
King

Aurelia

The
King

Petruchio

Sebastiano

Petruchio

The
King

Petruchio

Aurelia

The
King

Aurelia

Petruchio

The
King

Virmine

The
King

Virmine

Old
Tailor

Virmine

Old
Tailor

Virmine

Old
Tailor

Sebastiano

Everyone

The
King

Old
Tailor

The
King

Act One, Scene 1

Enter Severally* - Alerzo,
Fulgentio and Pandolpho

Colonel!

Signor
Alerzo!

Here.

Signors well met:
The lazy morn has scarcely trim’d* herself
To entertain the sun; she still retains
The slimy tincture* of the banished night.
I hardly could discern you.

But you appear fresh as a city bridegroom that has signed his wife a warrant
for the grafting horns. How fares Belinda after the weight of so much sin?
You lay with her tonight? Come speak? Did you take up on trust? Or have you
pawned a colony of oaths*? Or an embroidered belt*? Or have you taken the
Courtier’s trick, to lay your sword at mortgage*? Or perhaps a feather?
‘Twill serve in traffic* to return her ladyship: a fan or so.

You
are merry.

Come be free. Leave modesty for women to gild their pretty thriving art of
plenitude to enrich their husbands’ brow with cornucopias*. A soldier and
thus bashful? Pox, be open!

Had I the Pox good Colonel, I should stride far opener than I do. But pox o’
the fashion*.

(pointing
off stage)
Count Antonio

Count Antonio
enters

Though
he appear fresh as a bloom that newly
Kiss’d the sun adorned with pearly drops
Flung from the hand of the rose fingered morn,
Yet in his heart lives a whole host of valour.

He appears. A second Mars*.

More powerful since he holds wisdom and valour captive.

Let us salute him.

(as they
salute Antonio Machvile enters unnoticed)

(aside) Ha! How close they strike! As if they heard a
Wing’d thunder-bolt threatened his death and

Each
ambitious were to lose his life so
It might purchase him a longer being.
Their breath engenders* like two peaceful winds
That join a friendly league and fill the air
With silken music.
I may pass by and scarce be spared a look;

Or
any else but young Antonio.
Rise from thy scorching den, soul of mischief.
My blood boils hotter than the poisoned flesh
Of Hercules clothed in the Centaur’s shirt*.

Swell
me revenge, till I become a hill
High as Olympus’ cloud dividing top,

That
I might fall and crush them into air.
I’ll observe.

(Machvile
exits behind hangings)

Command thee all this little world I’m Master
Of contains and be assured it’s granted.
I have a life I owe to death and in
My Country’s causes I should …

Good sir no more! This ungrateful land owes you too much already.

And you still bind it in stronger bonds.

Your noble deeds, that like to thoughts outstrip

The
fleeting clouds, dash all our hopes of payment:
We are poor but in unprofitable thanks
That cannot rehearse enough your merit.

I dare not hear this. Pardon bashful ears
For suffering such a scarlet to o’erspread
Your burning portals.
Gentleman your discourses taste of Court:
They have a relish of known flattery.
I must deny to understand their folly.
Your pardon, I must leave you.

Modesty
commands.

(bows) Your honour’s vassals*.

Oh good Colonel be more a soldier.
Leave compliments for those that live at ease
To stuff their table books* and o’er a board*
Made gaudy with some pageant, beside custards
Whose quaking strikes a fear into the eaters,
Dispute them in a fashionable method.
A soldier’s language should be as his calling:
Rough,to declare he is a man of fire.
Farewell without the straining of a sinew;

No
superstitious cringe. Adieu.

Exit Antonio

Is
it not a hopeful* Lord? Nature to him has chained the people’s hearts. Each
to his Saint offers a form of prayer for young Antonio.

And in that loved name pray for the Kingdom’s good.

(whispers) Count Machvile.

Let’s away.

Exit all
except Machvile who walks to centre stage

Heart
wilt not burst with rage to see these slaves
Fawn like to whelps on young Antonio
And fly from me as from infection? Death,

Confusion
and the list of all diseases

Wait
upon your lives till you be ripe for

Hell,
which when it gapes may it devour you all.
Stay Machvile.
Leave this same idle chat: it becomes woman
That has no strength but what her tongue makes a

Monopoly.
Be more a man. Think. Think.

In
thy brain’s mint coin all thy thoughts to mischief

That
may act revenge at full. Plot. Plot.

Tumultuous
thoughts incorporate. Beget

A
lump how e’er deformed that may at length

Like
to a cub licked by the careful dam

Become
like to my wishes perfect vengeance.

Antonio,
aye Antonio; nay all
Rather than lose my will, shall head-long fall
Into eternal ruin: my thoughts are high

Death
sit[s] upon my brow; let every frown

Banish
a soul that stops me of a crown.

Exit Machvile

Act One, Scene 2

Enter Evadne
and Nurse

The
tailor yet returned, Nurse?

Madam, not yet.

I wonder why he makes gowns so imperfect they need so many stays.

Truly, in sooth*, and in good deed, law Madam, the stripling* is in love.
Deep, deep in love.

(aside) Ha! Does his soul, shot with an equal Dart
From the commanding bow of Love’s great god,

Keep
passionate time with mine? Or has she
Spied my error to reflect with eager

Beams
of thirsty love upon a tailor,

Being
myself born high? I must know more.

In love, good Nurse! With whom?

Hey-ho, truly, Madam ‘tis a fortune Cupid, good lad, praised be his god-head
for’t, has thrown upon me, and I am proud on’t.

Oh
‘tis a youth jocund* as sprightly May; one that will do discreetly* with a
wife, bord* her without direction from the stars or counsel her from the moon
to do for physic*. No he’s a back … Oh ‘tis a back indeed.

Fie this becomes you not!

Besides he is of all that conquering calling: a tailor Madam. Oh, ‘tis a
taking trade. What chambermaid, with reverence may I speak of those lost
maiden-heads*, could long hold out against a tailor?

You’re uncivil*.

What aged female, for I must confess I am worn thread-bare, would not be
turned and live a married life to purchase Heaven?

Heaven?

Yes my dear Madam, Heaven. Whither, my most sweet Lady, but to Heaven?
Hell’s a tailor’s warehouse; he has the keys and sits in triumph cross legged
over the mouth. It is no place of horror. There’s no flames made blue with
brimstone*; but the bravest silks, so fashionable. Oh I do long to wear such
properties!

A knock

Leave
your talk. One knocks – go see.

Oh ‘tis my love. I come.

Exit Nurse

A
Tailor! Fie, blush my too tardy* soul!
And on my brow place a becoming scorn
Whose fatal sight may kill his mounting hopes.
Were he but one that when ‘twas said he’s born
Had been born noble, high equal in blood

To
that our House boasts great. I’d fly into

His
arms with as much speed as an air cutting

Arrow
to the stake. But oh he comes! My

Fortitude
is fled!

Enter Nurse
and Sebastiano,
as Giovanno, holding a gown

(aside)
Yonder
she is and walks* – yet in sense strong enough to maintain argument she’s
under my cloak, for the best part of a lady, as this age goes, is her
clothes. In what reckoning ought we tailors to be esteemed then that are the
master workmen to correct Nature? You shall have a Lady in a dialogue with
some Gallant*, touching his suit, the better part of a man, so suck the
breath that names the skilful tailor as if it nourished her. Another Dona*
fly from the close embracement of her Lord to be all over measured by her
tailor. One will be sick forsooth* and bid her maid deny her to this Don,
that Earl, the other Marquise, nay to a Duke, yet let her tailor lace and
unlace her gown, so round her skirts to fit the fashion. Here’s one has in my
sight made many a noble Don to hang the head. Dukes and Marquises, three a
morning break their fasts on her denials. Yet I, her tailor, blessed be the
kindness of my loving stare, am ushered. She smiles and says I have stayed
too long and then finds fault with some slight stitch, that eye-let hole’s
too close, then must I use my Bodkin*, ‘twill never please else; all will not
do, I must take it home for no cause but to bring it her again next morning.
We tailors are the men, spite of the Proverb, Ladies cannot live without. It
is we that please them best, in their commodity: there’s no magic in our
habits. Tailors can prevail ‘bove him: honour styles best of man.

Bid him draw near.

Come hither sweet chuck: my Lady calls.

What means this woman? Sure she loves me too.
Tailors shall speed* had they no tongue to woo:
Women would sue* to them.

What, have you done it now?

Madam your gown, by my industry, is purged of errors.

Lord what a neat methodical way you have to vent your phrases. Pray when did
you commence?

What
mean you Madam?

Doctor I mean. You speak so physical.

Nay madam ‘tis a youth, I pray my stars for their kind influence, a woman may
be proud of, and I am. Oh 'tis a youth in print, a new Adonis, and I could
wish, although my glass* tells me I’m wondrous fair, I were a Venus* for him.

Oh Lady, you are more fairer by far.

La, you there Madam.

(aside) What art thou man? Are thou transformed? Or are thou grown so
base that this ridiculous witch should think I love her?

Leave
us.

I
go. Duck* I’ll be here anon. I will Dove*.

Exit Nurse

At
your best leisure.

(aside) Protect me man-hood, lest my glutted sense
Feeding with such an eager appetite
On your rare beauty, breaking the sluices,
Burst into a flood of passionate tears.
I must, I will, enjoy her, though a
Destroying clap* from Jove’s artillery

Was
the reward. And yet, dull-daring sir,

By
your favour no. He must be more than

Savage
can attempt to injure so much
Spotless innocence. Pardon, Great Powers, the

Thought
of such offence.

(aside)
When
Sebastiano, clad in conquering

Steel
and in a phrase able to kill, or

From
a coward’s heart banish the thought of

Fear,
wooed me, won not so much upon my

Captive
soul as this youth’s silence does. Help

Me
some power out of this tangling maze:

I
shall be lost else.

(aside) Fear: to the breast of women, build thy thrones

‘Pon
their soft hearts; Mine must not be thy slave.

Your pleasure Madam.

I have a question must be directly answered. No excuse, but from thy heart a
truth.

Command me Madam, were it a secret on whose hinges hung the casements of my
life, yet your command should be obeyed to the least scruple.

I take your word. My aged Nurse tells me you love her.
Answer, is it a truth?

(aside) She’s jealous, I’ll try.

As Oracle.

Ha!

(aside) ‘Tis so! I’ll further.

I love her, Madam,
With as rich a flame as Anchorites*
Do Saints they offer prayers to. I hug her
Memory as I would embrace the breath of
Jove* when it pronounced me happy, or (a)
Prophet that should speak my afterlife great,

Even
with adoration deified*.

My life, like to a bubble in the air,
Dissolved by some uncharitable wind,

Denies
my body warmth. You breath
Has made me nothing.

Evadne faints.

Rather
let me lose all external being.
Madam, good Madam.

Sebastiano
gently shakes Evadne

You
say you love her.

Madam, I do.
Can any love the beauty of a stone,

Set
by some curious artist in a ring,
But he must attribute some to
The file that adds to the lustre?
You appear like to a gem, cut by the

Steady
hand of careful Nature into such
Beauteous tablets that dull Art,
Famous in skilful flattery, is become
A novice in what Fame proclaimed him doctor.
He can’t express one spark of your great lustre.
Madam, those beauties that, but studied on
By their admirers, are defiled, serve
Buts as spots, to make your red and white
Envied of cloistered Saints.

Have I, ungrateful man, like to the sun
That from the Heavens sends down his cherishing
Beams on some religious plant, that with a

Bow
the worship of the thankful pays the

Preserver
of his life and grows? But thou,

Unthankful
man, in scorn of me, to love

A
Calendar of many years.

Madam, upon my knees – a superstitious

Rite
the heathens used to pay their Gods*, I

Offer
up a life, that until now ne’er

Knew
a price, made dear because you love it.

Arise; it is a ceremony due to none but Heaven.

Here I’ll take root and grow into my grave
Unless, dear goddess, you forget to be
Cruel to him [who] adores you with a zeal equal
To that of hermits*.

(kneels) I believe you and thus exchange a

Devout
vow humbly upon my knees, that

Though
the thunder of my brother’s rage should

Force
divorce, yet in my soul to love you;

Witness
all the winged inhabitants of

The
highest Heaven.

If sudden lightening, such as vengeful Jove*
Clears the infectious air with, threatened to
Scorch my daring soul to cinders if I
Did love you Lady, I would love you, ‘spite
Of the dogged Fates, or any power
Those cursed Hags* set to oppose me.

Enter Nurse

Be
thyself again.

Madam,
your brother.

Fie, you have done it ill!(To Nurse) Our brother, say you?(Passes gown to Sebastiano) Pray you take it home and mend it.

Madam, it shall be done; I take my leave.(aside) Love, I am made thy envy: I am he
This Votress* prays unto as unto you.
Tailors are more than men, and here’s the odds:
They make fine ladies and ladies made them Gods
And so they are not men, but far above them.
This makes the Tailors proud; then Ladies love them.

Exit Sebastiano.
He and Antonio cross paths.

What’s
he that passed?

My
tailor.

There’s
something in his face I sure should know.
But sister to your beads; pray for distressed
Seville whilst I mount some watch tower to
O’er-look our enemies. Religious laws

Commands
me fight for my loved Country’s cause.

Exit Antonio

Love
bids me pray and on his altar make
A sacrifice for my loved Tailor’s sake.

Exit Evadne

Act One Scene 3

Alarm. Enter
Raymond, Philippa, Leonis, Gilberty and Fyrenzo

Stand.

Stand.

Stand.

Give word through the Army, stand there.

Cries of stand
offstage

Bid
the drum cease whilst we embrace our love.
Come, my Philippa. Like the twins of war,
Laced in our steely cornets*, we’ve become
The envy of those brain-begotten Gods
Mouldy antiquity lifted to Heaven.
Thus we exchange our breath.

Raymond
embraces and kisses Philippa

My
honoured Lord!

Duty
commands I pay it back again,

It
will waste me into smoke else. Can my
Body retain that breath that would consume
An Army dressed in a rougher habit?
Pray deliver (come I’m a gentle thief)
The breath you stole.

Restore
back mine. (They kiss). So go pitch our tent. We’ll
Have a combat i’th field of love with thee,
Philippa, ere we meet the foe. Thou art

A
friendly enemy! How say you Lords?
Does not my love appear like to the

Issue
of the brain of Jove, Governess of

Arms
and Arts, Minerva, or a selected

Beauty
from a troop of Amazons?

She
is a mine of valour.

Lords
spare your praises ‘til like Bradamante *,
The mirror of our sex, I make the foe
Of France and us, crouch like a whelp awed by

The
heaving of his Master’s hand. My heart

Runs
through my arm and when I deal a blow it

Sinks
a soul. My sword flies nimbler than the

Bolts
of Jove and wounds as deep. Spain, thy proud host,

Shall
feel death has bequeathed his office to my steel.

Come on brave Lords. Upon your General’s word
Philippa loves no parley like the sword.

All exit

Act One Scene 4

Enter Sebastiano
as Giovanno, Old Tailor, Virmine and two tailors

Come
bullies*, come. We must forsake the use of nimble shears and now betake us
to our Spanish needles, stiletto* blades, and prove the proverb lies, lies in
his throat: one tailor can erect sixteen, nay more, of upstart Gentleman
known by their clothes and leave enough materials in hell to damn a broker.

We must to the wars, my boys.

How, Master! To the wars?

Aye,
to the wars, Virmine. What says thou to that?

Nothing
but that I would rather stay at home. Oh the good penny breakfast that I
shall lose! Master, good Master, let me alone to live with honest John, noble
John Black*.

Will
thou disgrace thy worthy calling, Virmine?

No,
but I am afraid my calling will disgrace me! I shall be gaping* for my
morning loaf and dram of Ale. Aye, I shall! And now and then look for a
cabbage leaf or an odd remnant to clothe my bashful buttocks.

You shall.

Yes
marry*; why I hope poor Virmine must be fed and will be fed or I’ll torment
you.

Master,
I take privilege from your love to hearten on my fellows.

Aye,
Aye do, do good boy.

Exit Old
Tailor

Come
my bold fellows, let us eternalise*
For our Country’s good some noble act
That may by time be registered at full;

And
as the years renew, so shall our fame
Be fresh to after times: The tailors’ name
So much trod under, and the scorn of all,
Shall by this act be high whilst others fall.

Come
Virmine, come.

Nay
if Virmine slip from the back of a tailor, spit him with a Spanish needle or
torment him in the louses*. Engin*: your two thumb nails*.

Exit all but Sebastiano

The
city seiged and thou thus chained in airy

Fetters
of a Lady’s love. It must not

Be.
Stay. ‘Tis Evadne’s love: Her life is

With
the city ruined if the French become

Victorious.
Evadne must not

Die.
Her chaste name that once made cold, now

Doth
my blood inflame.

Sebastiano
exits.

Act Two Scene 1

A table and
chairs in the centre of the stage. Enter (after a shout crying Antonio)
Governor and Machvile

Hell
take their spacious throats, we shall ere long
Be pointed as a prodigy.
Antonio is the man they load with praise
And we stand as a cipher* to advance

Him
by a number higher.

(aside) Now Machvile plot his ruin.

It is not to be borne. Are not you our

Master's
substitute? Then why should he
Usurp a privilege without your leave? To
Preach unto the people a doctrine
They ought not hear:
He incites them not to obey your charge
Unless it be to knit a friendly league
With the opposing French, laying before them
A troop* of feigned dangers [that] will ensue if
We do bid them battle.

Dares he do this?

It’s done already.
Smother your anger and you shall see here

At
the Counsel board* he'll break into a
Passion (aside) which I'll provoke him to.

Enter Antonio,
Alerzo, Fulgentio and Pandolpho.

Never
more need, my worthy partners, in
The dangerous brunt of Iron war had we
Of counsel. The hot reined* French led by

Make
the o'er burdened earth grown at their weight.
We cannot long hold out. Nor have we hope
Our Royal Master can raise up their siege
Ere we be forced to yield.
My Lord, your counsel; 'tis a desperate grief.

And must my Lord find un-delayed release?
Noble commanders, since that war's grim God,
After our sacrifice of many lives,
Neglects our offerings, and repays our

Service
with loss, 'tis good to deal with

Policy.
He's no true soldier that deals

Headless
blows with the endangering of

His
life; [and] may walk in a shade of safety,

Yet
o'erthrow his towering enemy.

Great
Alexander* made the then known world

Slave
to his powerful will, more by the

Help
of political wit than by the

Rough
compulsion of the sword. Troy*, that

Endured
the Grecians' ten years siege, by policy

Was
fired, and became like to a lofty

Beacon
on a flame.

Hum, hum.*

Suppose the French be marked for conquerors:
Stars have been crossed, when at natural birth they
Dart prodigious* beams, their influences,
Like to a flame of a newly lighted Taper*,

Has
with the breath of policy been blown
Out: even to nothing.

Hum, hum.

(to Pandolpho) This has been studied.

(to Alerzo) He's almost out.

Good. But to the matter - your counsel.

'Tis this my Lord:
That straight before the French have pitched their tents
Or raised a work* before our City walls -

As
yet their ships have not o’erspread the sea -

We
send a regiment that may with speed
Land on the marshes, and begirt* their back,

Whilst
we open our Gates, and with a strong assault
Force them [to] retreat into the arms of death:
So the revengeful earth shall be their tomb
That did ere while trample her teeming womb.

Machvile speaks Oracle*.

What
says Antonio?

Nothing.

How?

Nothing.

(aside) It takes:
Revenge I hug thee.
Young Lord, thou are lost.

Speak,
Antonio! Your counsel.

Nothing*.

How?

So:
And could my wish obtain a sudden grant

From
yon tribunal, I would crave, my senses
Might be all steeped in Lethe*, to forget
What Machvile has spoken.

(aside) Ha, it takes unto my wish.

Why, Antonio?

Because you speak not like a man that were
Possessed with a mere soldier’s heart, much

Less
a soul guarded with subtle sinews.
Oh madness, can there be in nature such
A prodigy so senseless, so much to be

Wondered
at, as can applaud or lend a

Willing
ear to that my blushes do betray

I've
been tardy to hear? Your childish policy.

Antonio, you're too bold: this usurped

Liberty! To abuse a
man of so much

Merit
is not seemly in you. Nay, I'll

Term
it sauciness.

Nay then my Lord, I claim the privilege of
A Counsellor and will object. This is

My
prophetic fear whispered in my heart:
When from a watch tower I beheld the French
Erect their spears, which like a mighty grove
Denied my eyes any other object -
The tops showed by a stolen reflection

From
the sun like diamonds, or as the

Glorious
gilder of the day*, should deign

A
lower visit. Then my warm blood, that

Used
to play like summer, felt a change.

Gray-bearded
winter froze my very soul,

Till
I became like the Pyrenean

Hills*,
wrapped in a robe of ice. My attic

Fear
froze me into a statue.

Cowardly Antonio!

I have lost my faith
And can behold him now without a wonder.

Antonio you’re too long and rack* our

Patience;
your counsel?

I feared, but what? Not our proud enemies.
No, did they burden all our Spanish world

And
I, poor I only, survived to threat

Defiance in the monsieur's
teeth*, and stand
Defendant for my country's cause, naked

And
unarmed, I'd through their bragging host and

Pay
my life a sacrifice to death, for

My
loved Country's safety.

Fulgentio,
thou hast not lost thy faith?

No,
I’m reformed. He’s valiant.

Antonio
your counsel.

Aye,
your counsel.

Our
foes increase to an unreckoned number:
We less them nothing, since we have no hope
To arrive a number that may cope with

Half
their Army. ‘Tis my counsel we strike

A
league*. ‘Tis wisdom to sue peace where powerful

Fate
threatens ruin, lest [we] repent too late.

‘Tis
God-like counsel.

And
becomes the tongue of young Antonio.

Antonio,
let me tell you, you have lost
Your valiant heart. I can with safety now

They all fight
in a confused manner. Antonio kills the Governor and injures Machvile.

The
Governor! Killed by Antonio’s hand?

No,
by the hand of justice. Fly, fly my Lord.

Send
for a surgeon to dress Count Machvile.
He must be now our Governor; the King
Signed it in the dead Governor’s commission.

Exit Attendant

Now
I repent too late my rash contempt.
The horror of a murderer will still
Follow my guilty thoughts, fly where I will.

Exit Antonio

I’m
wounded, else, coward Antonio,
Thou should not fly from my revengeful arm,
But my curses fall upon thy head

Heavy
as thunder. May thou die burdened
With ulcerous sins whose very weight may sink

Thee
down to Hell, beneath the reach of
Smooth-faced mercy’s arm.

Someone shouts
for Antonio

Confusion
choke your rash officious throats.
And may that breath that speaks his loathed name
Beget a plague, whose hot infectious air
May scald you up to blisters, which foretell
A purge of life: Up Machvile,
Thou’st thy will, howe’re cross fate
Divert the people’s hearts; they must perforce

Sue
to that shrine our liking shall erect.
The Governor is dead; Antonio’s lost
To anything but death; ‘tis our glad fate
To gripe* the staff of what we look’t for state.
My blood’s ambitious and runs through my veins
Like nimble water through a leaden pipe
Up to some barren mountain: I must have more.
All wealth in my thoughts to a Crown is poor.

Exit Machvile

Act Two Scene 2

Enter Sebastiano
as Giovanno, Evadne and Nurse

‘Tis
a neat gown and fashionable, Madam; is it not, love?

Upon
my virginity, wonderful handsome. Dear, when we are married I’ll have such a
one. Shall I not chicken? Ha.

What
else, kind nurse?

Truly
you tailors are the most sanctified members of a Kingdom. How many crooked
bodies and untoward bodies have you set upright, that they go now so straight
in their lives and conversation as the proudest of them all.

That’s
certain; none prouder.

How
mean you sir?

Faith,
Madam, your crooked movables* in artificial
bodies that rectify the deformities of nature’s over-plus as bunching banks,
or scarcity as scanty shoulders, are the proudest creatures. You shall have
them jet it* with an undaunted boldness; for the truth is what they want in
substance they have in air. They will scold the tailor out of his art and
impute the defect of nature to his want of skill though his labour make her
appearance pride worthy.

Death,
she has left a scent to poison me.
Love her, said she! Is any man so mad
To hug a disease? Or embrace a colder

Image
than Pygmalion’s*? Or play with the
Bird of frosty antiquity*? Not I!
Her gums stink worse than a pest-house* and more
Danger of infecting. As I’m a
Mortal tailor and your servant Madam,
Her breath has tainted me I dare not
Salute your Ladyship.

My
dear friend, let not thy lovely person
March with the scolding, peace-affrighting drum.
War is too cruel; come I’ll chain you here, here
In my arms and stifle you with kisses.
You shan’t go – by this you shan’t go.

By this I must.

I’ll
smother that harsh breath.

They kiss

Again
I counter-check it.

They kiss
again. Enter Antonio pursued; seeing them and stands amazed

Oh
sister, ha! What killing sight is this!

Cannot
be she. Sister!

Oh
my dear friend; my brother. We’re undone!

Degenerate
girl! Lighter than wind or air!
Can thou forget thy birth? Or ‘cause thou’rt fair
Are privileged, dost think with such a zeal to
Grasp an under-shrub*? Dare you exchange breath
With your tailors, without fear of vengeance
From the disturbed ghosts of our dead parents
For their blood’s injury? Or are your favours
Grown prostitute to all? My unkind Fate

Grieves
me not half so much as thee forgetful.

Sir,
if on me this language, I must tell you, you are too rash to censure. My
unworthiness, that makes her seem so ugly in your eyes, perhaps hangs in
these clothes; and is shifted off with them. I am as noble, but that I hate
to make comparisons, as any you can think worthy to be called her husband.

Shred
of a slave, thou liest!

Sir
I am hasty too; yet in the presence of my mistress can use a temper.

Brave;
your mistress!

Enter Machvile
with officers.

Lay
hold on him! Here we presume to meet
The enemy. We’ll purge the city lest

The
wrath of Heaven fall heavy on us.
Antonio I arrest thee of

Capital
treason ‘gainst the King and Realm.

To
prison with him.

My lost brother!

(aside) ‘Tis but an
error: treason do you call it, to kill the Governor in heat of blood and not
intended? For my Evadne’s sake, something I’ll do shall save his life.

Sebastiano
exit

To
prison with him.

Farewell,
Evadne. As thou lovest the peace

Of
our dead ancestors, cease to love so

Loathed
a thing: a tailor. Why, ‘tis the scorn

Of
all! Therefore be ruled by thy departing

Brother:
do not mix with so much baseness.
Come officers, bear me ev’n where you please,
My oppressed conscience nowhere can have ease.

Exit Machvile
and Evadne left as Antonio and officers enter right. Cries of rescue
offstage as Sebastiano, as Giovanno, and Tailors storm the officers and,
after a scuffle, rescue Antonio.

Enter Machvile
and he is approached by Officer 1

A
troop of Tailors have by force taken
Antonio from us, and have borne him,
’Spite of the best resistance we could make,

Unto
some secret place: we can’t find him.

Screech-owl*,
dost thou know what thou has said?
Death: find him or you die.

Exit officers

Oh my crossed stars!
He must not live to torture our next sense,

But
die, though he had no fault but innocence.

Exit Machvile

Act Two Scene 3

Enter Sebastiano
as Giovanno, Antonio and the Old Tailor

Can
this kindness merit your love? Do I deserve your sister?

My
sister! Worthy tailor; ‘tis a gift
Lies not in me to give: ask something else
’Tis thine, although it be gained with the quiet
Extinguishing of this, this breath you gave me.

Have
not I…

(interrupting)
Speak
no further! I confess you have been
All unto me – life and being. I breathe
But with your licence. Will no price buy out
Your interest in me but her love? I tell
Thee tailor, I have blood runs in me Spain
Cannot match for greatness next her King’s. Yet
To requite thy love I’ll call thee friend. Be
Thou Antonio’s friend, a favour nobles
Have thirsted for; will this requite thee?

Sir,
this may, but…

(interrupting) My sister,
thou would say, most worthy

Tailor.
She is not mine to give. Honour

Spoke
in my dying Father: ‘tis a

Sentence
that’s registered here, in

Antonio’s
heart. I must not wed her but

To
one in blood calls honour Father. Prithee*

Be
my friend, forget I have a sister;

In
love I’ll be more than a Brother; though

Not
to mingle blood.

May
I not call her mistress?

As
a servant: far from the thoughts of wedlock.

I’m
your friend, and proud of it. You shall find that though a tailor, I’ve an
honest mind. (to Old Tailor) Pray, Master, help my Lord into a Suit;
his life lies at you mercy.

I’ll
warrant you.

But
for thy men –

Oh
they are proud in that they rescued you.
And my blood of honour, since you are pleased
To grace the now declining trade of tailors
By being shrouded in their homely clothes
And deck a shop-board* with your noble person,
The taunting scorns, the foul mouthed world can throw

Upon
our needful calling shall be answered:
They injure honour since your honour is

A
noble practitioner in our mystery*.

Cheer
up Antonio. Take him in – the rest will make him merry. I’ll go try the
temper of a sword upon some shield that guards a foe. Pray for my good
success.

Exit Sebastiano

Come,
come my Lord. Leave melancholy to

Hired
slaves that murder at a price.

Yours
was…

(interrupting) No more,
flatter not my sin.

You
are too strict a convertite*, let’s in.

Exit Antonio
and Old Tailor

Act Two Scene 4

After a
confused noise enter Raymond, Leonis, Gilberty hastily

What
means this capering* echo? Or from

Whence
did this so lively counterfeit of
Thunder break out to liberty?

‘Tis
from the city.

It
cannot be! Their voice should out-roar Jove*.
Our Army, like a Basilisk*, has struck
Death through their eyes; our number, like a wind
Broke from the icy prison of the North,
Has froze the portals to their shivering hearts.
They scarce have breath enough to speak’t: they live.

A shout
offstage

‘Tis
certainly from thence.

You’re
deceived, poor Spaniards’ fear has changed their
Elevated gait to a dejection.

They’re
planet struck.

‘Tis
from a jocund* fleet, my genius

Prompts
me. They have already ploughed the

Unruly
seas and with their breasts*, proof ‘gainst

The
battering waves, dashed the big billows

Into
angry froth and ‘spite of the

Contentious
full mouthed gods of sea and wind,

Have
reached the city frontiers and

Begirt*
her navigable skirts.

(shout
offstage)

Again
‘tis so.

My
creed’s another way: I have no faith
But to the City.

Alarm
offstage. Enter a bloodied soldier.

Here’s
one, now we shall know. Ha! He appears like one composed of horror.

What
speaks thy troubled front?

Speak,
crimson Meteor.

Speak,
Prodigy, or on my sword thou fallest.

The
bold Spaniards, setting aside all cold
Acknowledgment of any odds or

Notice
of the number our Army is
Made proud with, sends from their walls more lightning

Than
great Jove* affrights the crimson world

With
when the air is turned to mutiny.

Villain,
thou liest; ‘twere madness to believe

Thee.
Foolish Spain may like those Giants that

Heaped
hill on hill, mountain on mountain to

Pluck
Jove* from Heaven who with a hand of
Vengeance flung them down beneath the centure*
And those cloud contemning* Mounts, heaved by the

Strength
of their ambitious arms became their
Monuments: so Spain’s rash folly, from this
Arm of mine, shall find their graves amongst the

Rubbish
of their ruined cities.

Enter another
soldier

What!
Another? Thy hasty news.

The
daring enemies have through their gates

Made
a victorious sally*; all our troops
Have jointly like the dust before the wind

The French
whisper and make to attack the Spanish, who turn on their guard and beat them
off.

Act Three Scene 1

Enter
Machvile, Spanish Colonels, Sebastiano as Giovanno with Raymond and Philippa as
prisoners. Enter all Tailors

A
tailor, a tailor, a tailor!

Raymond,
you're now my prisoner: Blind chance has favoured where your thoughts and
hope she meant to ruin from our discord, which Heaven has made victorious,
you meant to strike a harmony should glad you.

Machvile, Fulgentio
and Alerzo whisper amongst themselves

'Tis
not to be borne: a tailor!

'Twas
an affront galls to me think of. Besides his saucy valour might have ruined
all our forward fortunes had the French been stronger. Let him be banished!

It
shall be so. My fears are built on grounds
Stronger than Atlas's* shoulders: this same
Tailor retains a spirit like the lost

Antonio,
whose sister we will banish

In
pretence of love to justice. 'Tis a
Good snare to trap the vulgar hearts: his and

Her
goods I'll give the poor, whose tongues are in

Their
bellies, which being full is tipped* with

Heartless
prayers; but empty a falling
Planet is less dangerous; they'll down to Hell

For
curses.
You! Tailor!

My
Lord?

Deliver
up your prisoner.

You're
obeyed.

So.
Now we command on forfeit of thy

Life
you be not seen in any ground our

Master
title circles within three days.

Such
a factious spirit we must not nourish:
Lest like the Fable's serpent, grown warm in

Thee,
unthankful Spain, but my Evadne.
Well it must be so. Heart, keep thy still tough

Temper
'spite of woe.

Exit Sebastiano

(to
Raymond) My
house shall be your prison. Attend him, Colonels.

Please
you walk?

Exit all
except the Tailors

My
servant banished!

Famished,
master? Nay, faith! And a tailor come to be famished! 'Tis a hard world: no
bread in this world here hoe, to save the renowned corpse of a tailor from
famishing. 'Tis no matter for drink, give me bread!

Thou
hast a gut would swallow a peck* loaf.

Aye
marry would; with vantage; I tell truth, and as the proverb says, shame the
Devil - if our Hell afford a Devil, but I see none unless he appear in a
delicious remnant of nimmed* satin, and by my faith that's a courteous devil
that suffers the brokers* to hang him in their ragged wardrobe; and used to sell
his devilship for money. I tell truth. A tailor and lie? Faith, I scorn that!

Leave
your discovery.

Master,
a traveller you know is famous for lying and having as travelled as far as
Hell, may I not make a description of the unknown land?

My
brain is busy. Sebastiano must not tread an unknown land to find out a grave.
Unfortunate Sebastiano: first to lose thyself in a disguise unfitting for thy
birth, and then thy country for thy too much valour. There's danger in being
virtuous in this Age led by those sinful actors. The plunged stage of this
vice-bearing world would headlong fall but charitable virtue bears up all. I
must invent. I have it! So: as he's a tailor he is banished [from] Spain, as Sebastiano is revoked again.

Exit all.

Act Three Scene 2

Enter Machvile

How
subtle are my springes*: they take all. With
What swift speed unto my chaff* bait do all
Fowls fly unto their hasty ruin? Clap, clap
Your wings and flutter greedy fools whilst I

Laugh
at you folly. I have a wire set

For
the Moor and his ambitious consort
Which if my wife would second they are sure.

Enter
Auristella

What
must she second?

Art
thou there, my love? We're in a path that

Leads
us to a height; we may confront the

Sun
and with a breath extinguish common

Stars;
be but thou ruled, the light that does create

Day
to this city must be derived from us.

You
fire my soul and to my airy

Wings
add quicker feathers. What tasks would not

I
run to be called Queen? Did the life blood
Of all our family, father and mother,

Stand
as a quick* wall to stop my passage

To
a throne, I'd with a poniard open

Their
azure* veins and squeeze their active blood

Up
into clods till they become as

Cold
as winter's snow, and as a bridge

Upon
their trunks I'd go.

Our
souls are twins and thirst with equal heat

For
deity: Kings are in all things Gods
Saving mortality.

To
be a Queen what danger would I run?
I'd spend my life like to a barefoot nun

So
I might sit above the lesser stars

Of
small nobility but for a day.

'Tis
to be done, love, a nearer way*. I

Have
already with the sugared baits of

Justice,
liberality and all the
Fox-like gins* that subtle Statesmen set to

Catch
the hearts o'th giddy multitude - which

If
it fails, as cautious policy

Forbids,
I bid too strongly on their drunk

Uncertain
votes - I'd have thee break with my
Great prisoner's wife, as I will do with him:
Promise the states equal divided, half

Himself
shall rule; so that if need compel

Us
to take arms we may have forces

From
the realm of France to seat us in the

Chair
of Government.

I
n'er shall endure to walk as equal

With
proud Philippa. No. My ambitious

Soul
boils in a thirsty flame of

Total
glory: I must be all, without

A
second flame to dim our lustre.

Still
my very soul. Thinkest thou I can endure

[A]
competitor, or let an Ethiope

Sit
by Machvile’s side as partner in his

Honour?
No, as I have seen in the

Commonwealth
of players, one that did act the
Theban Creon’s* part; with such a life I

Became
ravished, and on Raymond mean to

Plot
what he did one the cavilling* boys of

Oedipus,
whilst we grasp the whole dignity.

As
how, sweet Machvile?

It
is not ripe, my love. The King, I hear,
Applauds my justice, wherefore I have sent

Order
that Count Antonio, once

Being
taken, be sent to Filford Mill;

There
ground to death.

What
for his wife?*

Thy
envy? She I have banished and her goods,

To
guard a shower of curses from my head,
I’ve given the poor.

Good
policy. Let’s home to our designs:
I hate to be officious, yet my frown

Shall
be dissolved to flattery for a crown.

Attend
your Lady.

Exit
Auristella

So her forward spleen,

Tickled
with the thought of greatness, makes the

Scene’s
attempts run smooth. The haughty Moor shall

Be
the lader* on whose servile back I’ll

Mount
to greatness. If calm peace deny me

Easy
way, rough war shall force it. Which done,

Raymond
and his Philippa must go seek

An
Empire in Elysium*: For

To
rule predominance belongs alone

To
me: slaves are unworthy of rule. What

State
would set a crown upon a mule?

Exit Machvile

Act Three Scene 3

Antonio centre
stage, disguised sitting in a closet

My
soul is heavy and my eyelids feel

The
weighty power of Morpheus*: Each
Element that breathes a life within me
Runs a contrary course and conspire to
Counterfeit a Chaos*, whilst the frame and

Weak
supporters of my inward man crack

As
beneath the weight of Atlas’* burden.

A
sudden change! How my bleared* eyelids

Strive
to force a sleep ‘gainst nature. Oh yon

Powers
that rule the better thoughts, if you have

Ought
to act on my frail body, let it

Be
with eagle’s speed, or if your Wills so

Please
let my fore past and undigested

Wrongs
o’erwhlem my thoughts, and sink me to the

Ground
with their no less than death’s remembrance.

Cease,
bastard slave, to clog my senses with

The
leaden weights of an unwilling sleep,

Unless
your raw-boned brother joins his force

And
makes a separation twixt my airy

Soul
and my earthly body. I am

O’ercome.
Heaven work your wills; my breath

Submits
to this as it would submit to death.

Antonio
sleeps.

Soft music
plays as Cupid descends until he is in mid-air.

Sleep
entranced man, but be

Wakeful
in thy fancy: see

Love
hath left his palace fair

And
beats his wings against the air

To
ease thy panting breasts of ill.

Love
is a physician, our will

Must
be obeyed. Therefore with haste

To
Flanders fly; the echoing blast

Of
fame shall usher thee along

And
leave thee pestered in a throng

Of
searching troubles, which shall be

But
bug-bears* to thy constancy.

Enter Death
from left and Aurelia from right. Death strikes three times at Antonio but
Aurelia diverts them. Exit Death and Aurelia.

What
this same shadow seems to be
In Flanders thou shall real see.

The
maid that seemed to conquer Death
And give the longer lease of breath

Dotes
on thy air; reports hath been

Lavish
in praising thee unseen.

Make
haste to Flanders: time will be

Accused
of slothfulness if she

Be
longer tortured. Do not stay,

My
power shall guide thee on thy way.

Cupid ascends.

Enter Sebastiano as Giovanno,
and the Old Tailor

He
is asleep.

See
how he struggles, as if some visions

Had
assumed a shape fuller of horror

Than
his troubled thoughts.

His
conscience gripes him to purpose: see he

Wakes:
Let us observe.

Stay
gentle power, leave hostage that thy

Promise
thou’lt perform, and I will offer

To
thy deity more than my lazy

Heart
has offered yet. But stay, Antonio:
Can thy easy faith give credit to a

Be
more a man! Shrink not beneath a weight so light a child may bear it. For
believe me, if my prophetic fear deceive me not, you had done an act Spain should forever praise had you killed Machvile too.

As
how good Master? I must call you so;

This
is your livery.

Oh
you’re a noble tailor. But to Machvile: it was my chance, being sent for by
his wife to take the measure of their noble prisoner, who when I came was
busy being placed into a room where I might easily hear them talk of crowns
and kingdoms and of two that should be partners in this end of Spain.

Who
were they?

Machvile
and Raymond. At last Machvile laughed saying, ‘for this I made the Governor
to cross Antonio at the Counsel Board, knowing that one, if not both, should
die’.

Did
he say this?

He
did, and added more under a feigned show of love to justice: Banished your
sister!

And
ravished her? Be gone. Why stir you not?
Ha, ha, ha, the Devil is afraid.

(from
offstage)
Help! A rape!

(from
offstage)
Stop her mouth!

Who
calls for help? ‘Tis my Evadne! Aye,

It
was her voice that gave the echo life,

That
cried a rape: Devil, dost love a wench?

Who
was thy Pander*, ha? What saucy fiend

Dared
lay his unpared fangs on my Evadne?

Come,
I’ll swim unarmed over Acheron*

And
sink grim Charon* in his fiery boat.

(from
offstage)
Murder! A rape!

I
come, I come!

Sebastiano
exits left as the Bandits enter right dragging Evadne by her hair, she drops
a scarf centre stage. Bandits and Evadne exit left as Sebastiano enters
right.

I
cannot find her yet: the King of Flames

Protests
she is not there, but hang him, rogue!

They
say he’ll lie. Oh, how my glutted spleen

Tickles
to think how I have the paid the slave;

I
made him lead me into every hole.

Ha,
ha, ha, what crying was there there? Here

On
a wheel, turned by a Fury’s hand,

Hangs
a distracted statesman, that had spent

The
little wit Heaven to strange purpose

Lent
him, to suppress rights, make beggars and

Get
means to be a traitor, ha, ha, ha.
And here hangs an usurer* fat with the

Curses
of so many heirs his extortion

Had
undone, sate to the chin in a warm
Bath made of melted gold. And now and then

A
draught passed through his throat; he fed upon

His
God, but being angry scalded his

Chops.
Right against him stood a fooled Gallant,

Chained
unto a post and lashed by Folly

For
his want of wit. The reeling drunkard

And
plump glutton stood making of faces

Close
by Tantalus*, but drank and fed on

Air.
The whore-master, tied to a painted

Punk*,
was by a Fury termed insatiate

Lust,
whipped with a blade of fire, and here –

What’s
here? ‘Tis my Evadne’s veil , ‘tis hers

I
know’t. Some slave has ravished my Evadne!

Well,
there breathes not such an impious slave in

Hell.
Nay, it’s hers; I know it too, too plain.

Your
breath is lost; ‘tis hers. You speak in vain.

Exit Sebastiano

Act Four Scene 2

Thunder and
Lightning.

Enter Bandits
dragging Evadne by her hair

Come,
bring her forward. Tie her to that tree; each man shall have his turn. Come
minion*, you must quench the raging flames of my concupiscence*. What, do you
weep? You puritanical punk*! I shall tickle mirth into you by and by.
Trotter, good Trotter, post unto my cell, make compound of muscadine* and
eggs. For the truth is I am a giant in my promises but in the act a Pigmy: I
am old and cannot do as I have done. Good Trotter, make all convenient speed.

Faith
Master, if you can’t, here’s them that can ferret in a cunny* burrow without
a provocative, I’ll warrant you. Good Master, let me begin the health.

No
more I say: it is a parcel of excellent mutton, I’ll cut it up myself. Come
minion.

Exit Trotter

The Captain
takes out his dagger, winds Evadne’s hair round it and sticks it into the
ground.

Thunder and
Lightning

Kill
me, oh kill me. Rather let me die

Than
live to see the jewel that adorns the

Souls
of virtuous virgins ravished from

Me.
Do not add sin to sin, and at a

Price
that ruins me and not enriches you,

Purchase
damnation. Do not, do not do’t.

Sheath
here your sword, and my
departing soul,

Like
your good angel, shall solicit Heaven

To
dash out your offences. Let my flight

Be
pure and spotless. Do not injure that

Manhood
would blush to think on; it is all

A
maid’s divinity. Wanting her life

She’s
a fair corpse, wanting her chastity

A
spotted soul of living infamy.

Hang
chastity!

A
very voice.

Enter Trotter

Oh
Captain, Captain, yonder’s the mad Orlando* the furious, and I think he takes
me for – what do you call him?

What,
Meder*?

Aye,
Aye, Meder – the Devil Meder. He was so noodled!* Me – oh here he comes! I’ll
be gone.

Exit Trotter

Enter Sebastiano as Giovanno

Stay
Satyr*, stay. You are too light of foot.

I
cannot reach your paces, prithee stay.

What
goddess have you there? Sure ‘tis Evadne!

Are
you the dragons that ne’er sleep but watch

The
golden fruit of the Hesperides*?
Ha, then I am Hercules. Fly ye?
Sure that face dwelt on Evadne’s shoulders.

He beats them
off and unbinds Evadne

Oh
thou preserver of near lost Evadne!
What must my weakness pay?

(aside)
‘Tis,
‘tis she. She must not know I’m mad.

(aside)
Assist
me some good Power, it is my friend.

Make
me but wise enough to resolve myself.

(aside)
It
may be ‘tis not she; I’ll ask her name.

What
are you called, sweet goddess?

They
that know me mortal, term me Evadne.

‘Tis
she! Aye, aye, ‘tis she.

Pray
you Sir, unto the bond of what I

Owe
you, which is the poor distressed virgin’s

Life,
add this one debt: what are you?

Not
worth your knowledge: I am a poor, a

Very,
very, poor despised thing. But

Say,
I pray, are you sure your name’s Evadne?

(aside) ‘Tis
questionless my tailor.

I
am she. Receive me to your arms,

Not
altered in my heart though in my clothes.

I
do believe you, indeed I do. But

Stay
- I don’t! Are you a maid, a virgin?
Pray tell me! For my Evadne could not

Tell
a lie. Speak. I shall love you though that

Jewel’s
gone.

I
am as spotless, thank your happy self

That
saved me from the robbers, as the child

Which
yet is but a jelly ‘tis so young.

No
more, no more! Trust me I do believe

You.
So many slaves, whose flaming appetites

Would
in one night ravish a throng of virgins

And
never feel degression in their heat -

Heh,
after and murder all!

How do you?

Well,
very well. Believe you think I’m mad.

You look distractedly.

‘Tis
but your thoughts! Indeed I’m wondrous well.

(aside) How fair she
looks after so foul a deed.

It
cannot be that she should be false to me?
No, thou art mad to think so. Fool, oh fool!
Thinkest thou those slaves, having so fair a mark,

Would
not be shooting? Yes, they would. They have!
Evadne is fly-blown*! I cannot love her!

What
say you, sweet?

(aside) The innocence
that sits upon that face

Says
she is chaste; the guilty can’t speak so

Evenly
as she does. Guilty, said I?

Alas
it were not her fault were she ravished.

Oh
madness, madness, whither will thou bear me?

His
senses are unsettled. I’ll go seek

Some
holy man to rectify his wits.

Sweet,
will you go unto some hermit’s cell?

You
look as you lack rest.

(aside)
She
speaks like to an angel; she’s the same

As
when I saw her first, as pure, as chaste.

Did
she retain the substance of a sinner,

For
she is none, her breath would be sour

And
betray the rankness of the act, but

Her
chaste sighs beget as sweet a dew as

That
of May.

Why
weeps Evadne? Truly I’m not mad!

See?
I am tame. Pray lead me where you please.

Act Four Scene 3

A Banquet.
Enter Petruchio, Aurelia and two servants bringing Antonio asleep in a chair
and set him to the table.

The
drink has done its part effectively.

‘Twas
a strong powder that could hold his senses

So
fast that this removing, so full of

Noise,
had not the power to wake him.

Good
father, let Aurelia, your

Daughter,
do this same act of justice; let
Me tread the pin: the fact of his being
So foul, so hateful, has lent me, though

A
maid, such fortitude.

Thou
hast thy wish, do’t boldly. ‘Tis a deed

That
in the ignorance of elder ages

Would
be thought full of merit: Be not daunted.

I
have a thought tells me it’s religious

To
sacrifice a murderer to death,

Especially
one that did act a deed

So
generally accounted odious.

By
holy Jacques* I’m a governor and

Should
my life (though by the hand of him my

Duty
does call King) be stroke i’th air, my

Injured
corpse should not forsake the earth till

I
did see’t revenged. Be resolute; thy

Foot
is guided by a power, that though unseen,

Is
still a furtherer of good attempts.

Pray
Sir, lend me the key of the back ward*

For
though my conscience tells me ‘tis an act

I
may hereafter boast of, yet I’ll pass

Unto
our Lady’s* chapel when ‘tis done

To
be confessed ‘ere I am seen of any.

I
am proud to see thee so well given.

Take
them, girl, and with them take my prayers.

He
wakes; pray leave me, Sir.

Exit Petruchio

So,
I’ll make fast the door. Goodness bear witness,

‘Tis
a potent power out-weighs my duty.

Amazement!
On what tenters* do you stretch?

Oh
how this alteration wracks my reason,

I’m
to find the Axeltree* on which it

Hangs.
Am I asleep?

Shake
thy wonder off and leave that seat, ‘twas

Set
to sink thy body forever from

The
eyes of human sight. To tell thee how

Would
be a fatal means to both our ruins –

Briefly,
my love has broke the bands of nature

With
my father to give you being.

Happy,
happy vision, the blessed preparative

To
this same hour; my joy would burst me else.

Receive
me to thy arms.

I
would not wish to live but for thee, life

Were
a trouble. Welcome to my soul.

Antonio and
Aurelia embrace

Stand.
I have a ceremony to

Offer
to our safety ‘ere we go.

She takes a
dog and ties it to the chair, she stamps. The chair and dog fall, a pistol
shot within.

Had
not my love, like a kind branch of some

O’erlooking
tree, caught thee, thou’dst fallen

Never
to look upon the world again.

What
shall I offer to my life’s preserver?

Only
thy heart, crowned with a wreath of love

Which
I will ever keep, and in exchange

Deliver
mine.

Thus
I deliver; in this kiss receive it

Antonio kisses
Aurelia

In
the same form Aurelia yields up hers.

Aurelia kisses
Antonio

A noise
offstage

What
noise is that?

I
fear, my father.

What’s
to be done?

Through
the back ward, of which I have the key,

We’ll
suddenly make escape; then in two

Gowns
of which I am provided, we’ll clothe

Ourselves
till we be past all fear.

Be’t
as you please, ‘tis my good genius’

Will
thee I obey. Command, I’ll follow still.

Exit Antonio
and Aurelia

Enter
Petruchio with servants

She’s
gone unto her prayers; may every bead

Draw
down a blessing on her, that like seed

May
grow into a harvest. ‘Tis a girl

My
age is proud of; she’s indeed the model

Of
her dead mother’s virtue, as of shape.

Bear
hence this banquet.

Exit with the
Banquet.

Act Four Scene 4

Sebastiano as Giovanno
is discovered sleeping in Evadne’s lap

Thou
silent God, that with the leaden Mace*

Arrest
all, save those prodigious birds, that

Are
Fate’s heralds to proclaim all ill. Deaf

Giovanno,
let no fancied noise of

Ominous
screech-owls* or night raven’s voice

Affright
his quiet senses. Let his sleep

Be
free from horror, or unruly dreams,

That
may beget a tempest in the streams

Of
his calm reason. Let them run as smooth

And
with as great a silence as those do

That
never took an injury, where no

Wind
had yet acquaintance, but like a smooth

Crystal dissolved
into a water that

Never
frowned or knew a voice but music.

Enter Aurelia
and Antonio dressed as hermits.

Holy
hermits, for such your habits speak

You,
join your prayers with a distressed virgin’s,

That
the wits of this distracted young man

May
be settled.

Sure,
it is my sister, and that sleeping

Man
Giovanno. She loves him still!

Sebastiano
wakes.

Oh
what a blessedness am I bereft

Of!
What pleasure has the least part of a

Minute
stolen from my eyes? Methought I

Did
embrace a brother and a friend; and

Both
Antonio.

Blessed
be those gentle powers that –

(interrupts) What,
Evadne? Have deceiv’d my eyes?

Take
heed, Evadne, worship not a dream:

‘Tis
of a smoky substance and will shrink

Into
the compass of report, that ‘twas,

And
not reward the labour of a word

Were
it substantial. Could I now but see

That
man of men I’d, by my practice of

Religious
prayers, add to the calendar

One
holy day and keep it once a year.

Antonio pulls
down his hood to reveal his face

Behold
Antonio.

Brother!

(to
Sebastiano)
Brother!

What
earthquake shakes my heart; with what a speed

She
flew in’t his arms.

Some
Power that hearkens to the prayer of

Virgins
has been distilled to pity at

My
fortunes and made Evadne happy.

Now
my longing that was grown big, is with

Your
sight delivered of a joy, that will

Become
a giant and overcome me.

Welcome,
thrice welcome brother!

Ha!
Her brother! Fortune has bound me so

Much
in their debts I must despair to pay

Them.
Twice has my life been by these twins of

Goodness
plucked from the hand of death. That

Fatal
enmity between our houses

Here
shall end though my father, at his death,

Commanded
me to eternity of

Hatred.
What tie binds stronger than reprieve

From
death? Come hither friend, now brother, take

Her.
Thou hast been a noble tailor.

Be
moderate, my joys: do not o’erwhelm

Me.
Here, take Aurelia. May you live

Happy.
Oh, Antonio, this was the cause

Of
my disguise: Sebastiano could

Not
win Evadne’s love but Giovanno

Did.
Come now to our father’s castle.

Pardon
me; there is a bar that does

Concern
my life, forbids you as a friend

To
think on going to any place

But
to the tailors’ house, which is not far.

Come,
as we go I will relate the cause.

Do,
good brother.

Go,
good Sebastiano.

Sebastiano
is your Page and bound

To
follow. Lead on.

Oh
noble temper; I admire thee. May

The
world bring forth such tailors every day.

Exit all

Act Four Scene 5

Enter three
tailors on a shop-board

Come,
come let’s work. For if my guesses point the right we shan’t work long.

I
care not how soon for I have a notable stomach to bread.

Dost
hear? I suspect that courtier my Master brought in last night to be the King.
Which if it be, bullies*, all the bread in the town shan’t satisfy us, for we
will eat cum privilegio*.

Come,
let’s have a device, a thing, a song! Boy.

Come,
an air.

The Song

‘Tis
a merry life we live

All
our work is brought into us

Still
are getting, never give,

For
their clothes all men do woo us,

Yet
unkind they blast our name

With
aspirations of dishonour:
For which we make bold with their dames,

When
we take our measure on her.

For
which we etc.

Enter Antonio,
Sebastiano
as Giovanno and the Old Tailor

You
see the life we lead! Cease.

Oh
‘tis a merry one.

It
is no news to me; I have been used to it.

Now
for discovery – the King as yet

Is
ignorant of your names and shall be

Till
your merits beg your pardon.

My
Lord you are for Machvile; take this gown.

Pray
for success.

Exit Antonio

You
in this French gown for Philippa;

This
is her garment. I hear the King, begone.

The
French man’s folly sits upon your tongue.

Exit Sebastiano

Enter the King
of Spain, Evadne and Aurelia

Believe
me tailor, you have out-stripped the

Court,
for such perfections lives not everywhere.

Nature
was vexed as she’s a very shrew*,

She
made all others in an angry mood;

These
only she can boast for masterpieces

The
rest want something or in mind or form,

These
are precisely made; a critic jury

Of
cavilling* Arts can’t condemn a scruple.

But
that your entrance in this formal speech

Betrays
you’re a Courtier I had been angry

At
your rank flattery.

Can
you say so?

Sir,
she has spoke my meaning.

(aside
to the Old Tailor)
Friend, what are these beauties called?

(to
The King)) Your
Grace’s pardon.

(to
Old Tailor) Are
they Oracle, or is the knowledge

Fatal?
But that I know thy faith, this denial

Would
conjure a suspicion in my breast.

Use
thy prerogative, ‘tis thy own house

In
which you are a king and I your guest.

Come
ladies.

Exit All

Act Four Scene 6

Enter Antonio
disguised as a physician

This
habit will do well and less suspected.
Wrapped in this cover lives a kingdom’s plague;

They
kill with licence. Machvile’s proud dame

‘Tis
famed is ficke. Upon my soul, howe’re

Her
health may be the agues commons cry;

She’s
a disease they groan for. This disguise

Shall
sift her ebon* soul and if she be

Infectious
like a megrim* or rot limb

The
sword of justice must divide the joint

That
holds her to the state’s endangered body.

She
comes.

Enter Machvile
with Auristella leaning on his arm and two servants.

Look
up my Auristella. Better the

Sun
forsake his course to bless with his

Continuing
beams the Antipodes, and

We
grovel forever in eternal

Night,
than death eclipse thy rich and stronger

Light.
Seek some physician, horror to my
Soul, she faints! I’d rather lose the issue
Of my hopes, than Auristella.

(aside)
Issue
of his hopes? Strange?

The
crown’s enjoyment can yield no content

Without
the presence of my Auristella.

(aside) Crown’s
enjoyment! Oh villain!

Why
stir you not? Fetch me some skilful man.

My
kingdom shall reward him if his art

Chain
her departing soul unto her flesh,

But
for a day, till she be crowned a Queen.

Fly
bring him unto this walk.

Stay,
most honoured Count!

(aside)
Now
for a forged link

Of
flattery to chain me to his love.

Having
with studious care gone o’er the

Art
folly terms magic, which more sublime

Souls
skilled in’t stars know is above that

Mischief,
I find your born to be above

Vulgar
greatness, even to a throne. But

Stay,
let’s fetch this Lady.

All
greatness without her is slavery.

Use
modest violence.

Machvile
shakes Auristella awake

Oh!

Stand
wider, give her air.

God-like
physician, I and all that’s mine

Will
at thy feet offer a sacrifice.

Forefend
it goodness; I, nay all, before

Many
hours makes the now young day a

Type
of sparkling youth, shall on their knees

Pray
for your highness.

Look
up, my Aristella, and be great.

Rise
with the sun, but never to decline.

What
have you done?

Waked
thee to be a Queen.

A
Queen! Oh don’t dissemble; you have robbed

Me
of greater pleasure than the fancied

Bliss
Elysium* owns. Oh for a pleasure

Real
that would appear in all unto my

Dream;
that I may frown, and then kill, smile and

Create
again. Were there a Hell, as

Doting
age would have, to fright from lawless

Courses
headless youth, for such a short lived

Happiness
as that, I would be lost unto

Eternity.

The day grows old in hours.

Come,
Auristella, to the capital:
The grey-beard senate shall on humble knees

Pay
a religious sacrifice of praise

Unto
thy demi-deity; the stars

Have
in a general senate made thee Queen

Of
this our world: great master of thy art

Confirm
my love.

Madam
-

Auristella
makes to speak

Nay,
hear him, love. Believe me he’s a man

That
may be secretary to the Gods.

He
is alone in art, ‘twere sin to name

A
second; all are dunces to him.

(aside)
How

Easy
is the faith of the ambitious.

Follow
me to the counsel.

Exit Machvile

Are
you the man my husband speaks so high of?

Are
you skilled in the stars?

Yes,
Madam.

Your
habit says, or you abuse the custom,

You’re
a physician.

Madam,
I’m both.

And
d’ee* find no let that stops me rising?

Not
any.

Away!
Your skill is dull, dull to derision.

There
is a star fixed i’th heaven of greatness

That
sparkles with a rich and fresher light

Than
our sick and defective taper.

It
may be so; the horoscope is troubled.

Confusion
take your horoscope and you. Can

You,
with all your art, advise my fears
How to confound this constellation.

Nay
monsieur. To deprive desert of praise is unknown. Language, truth, I use it
not; nay it is very well.

Be
me trot a Madam mener do ill. De English man do ill, de Spanare do, de Duch
de all do ill. But your French man, and begar he doe incomparable brave.*

You’re
too proud on’t.

Begar
me no proud I’d vorle, me speak be me trot de trut, and me noe lye; metra
madam begar you have de find bode a de vorle. O de fine brave big ting in me
have ever measure, me waire it fit so pat.*

Enter Raymond

Welcome
my Lord.

Shall
I still long, yet lose my longing still?

Is
there no art to mount the lofty seat?
No engine* that may make us ever great?

Must
we be still styled* subjects, and for fear

Our
closet whispers reach the a wing care,

Not
trust the wind?

Be
calm, my love.
Ha, who have we here? An eavesdropper?

Me
Signior, be povera jentle homa a Franch a votre commandement.

My
tailor.

Yes
monsieur, the Madam’s tailor.

Some
happy genius does attend my

Wishes,
or [a] spirit, like a Page, conducts

Unto
me the Ministers, whose suite must

Seat
me easy. Come hither French man, can’st

Thou
rule thy tongue? Art not too much a woman?

No,
begar, me show something for the man.

Or
canst thou be like a perverse one: professe

Doggedness?
Be as a dead man? Dumb? Briefly

Be
this: a friend to France and with a silent

Speed
post to our now approaching armed friends.

Tell
them Raymond, ere the hasty sand

Of
a short hour be spent, shall be impaled

And
on his brow a deputy for France

Support
a golden wreath of Kingly cares.

Bid
them make haste to pluck my partner down

Into
his grave. Be gone, as thou nursest

In
thy breast thoughts that do thirst for

Nobleness.
Be secret and thou’rt made; if

Not
thou’rt nothing. Mark ‘tis Raymond says it,

And
as I live, I breathe not if my deeds

Appear
not in a horror ‘bove my words.

Begar
me, no need threaten; me be as close to your secret, or my Lady’s secret as
the skin to the flesh, the flesh to the bone; if me tell call me the…what do
you call the Modero?* The dog, the bitch; call me son of the bitch.

Enter
Fulgentio.

Count
Machvile waits your honour in the hall.

Do
it and be more than common in our

Favour.
Here, take this ring for thy more

Credit.
Farewell; be quick and secret.

Exit Raymond,
Fulgentio and Philippa

Folly
go from my tongue: the French so nigh

And
thou half ruined Spain, so wretchedly

Provided.
Strange, yet not, all countries have

Bred
monsters. ‘Tis a proverb as plain as

True,
and aged as ‘tis both: one tainted sheep

Mars
a whole flock. Machvile, that tainted beast,

Whose
spreading ills infecteth all and by

Infecting
kills. I’ll to the French what he

Intends
to be our ruin; shall confound their villainy.

Exit Sebastiano

Act Five Scene 1

Enter the
King, Antonio, Old Tailor, Evadne and Aurelia. The King and Antonio are
whispering as they walk on stage.

For
this discovery be still* Antonio.

The
frowning law may with a furrowed face

Hereafter
look upon but ne’er shall touch

Thy
condemned body. Here, from a King’s hand,

Take
thy Aurelia. Our command shall smooth

The
rising billows of her father’s rage

And
charm it to a calm. Let one be sent

To
certify our pleasure; we would see him.

Your
Grace’s will shall be in all obeyed.

Thy
loyal love makes thy King poor.

Let
not your judgment, Royal sir, be questioned,

To
term that love – was but a subject’s duty.

Exit Old
Tailor

You
sent the poison, did you?

Yes,
and here like your Grace; the Apothecary

Called
it a strong provocative to madness.

Did
he not question what you used it for?

Oh,
my disguise saved him from that labour sir.

My
habit, that was more physician than

Myself,
told him to dispatch some

Property
that had been tortured with some

Five
thousand drugs to try experiment.

Another
man shan’t buy the quantity

Of
so much rats-bane shall kill a flea, but

Shall
be had forsooth* before a Justice,

Be
questioned, nay perhaps be confined to

Peep
through an iron gate, when your

Physician
may poison, who not, cum

Privelgio*;
it’s his trade.

Enter Sebastiano as
Giovanno

Oh
my Sebastiano!

Peace, my Evadne! The King must not yet know me.

My
brother has already made you known.

Will
it please your Highness?

What,
Sebastiano? To still be a King

Of
universal Spain without a rival?

Yes
it does please me, and you ministers

Of
my still growing greatness shall ere long

Find
I am pleased with you that boldly durst

Pluck
from the fixed arm of sleeping justice

Her
long sheathed sword and wet the rusty blade

Upon
Machvile and his confederate rebels.

That,
my Lord, is yet to do. Let him mount

Higher
that his fall may be too deep for

A
resurrection. They’re gone to the Great

Hall,
whither wil’t please your Grace disguised to

Go,
your person by our care shall be secure.

Their
French troops I have sent useless into

France by virtue of
Raymond’s ring, which he

Gave
me to bid the General, by that token,

To
march to this city.

What
say the colonels? Will they assist me?

Doubt
not, my Lord.

Come
then, let’s go guarded; with such as you

‘Twere
sin to fear were all the world untrue.

Exit all

Act Five Scene 2

Enter tailors

Now
for the credit of tailors.

Nay
master, and* we do, not act, as they say, with any players in the globe of
the world, let us be baited like a bull for a company of strutting coxcombs*:
nay we can act I can tell you.

Well,
I must to the King. See you be perfect; I’ll move it to his highness.

Exit Old
Tailor

Now
my masters we are to do – do mark me – do…

Do!
What do? Act, act! You fool, you. Do, said you? What do? You a player, you
are a plasterer, a mere dirt dauber and not worthy to be mentioned with
Virmine, that exact actor. Do! I am ashamed on’t, fie!

Well
said, Virmine. Thou tickles* him y‘faith*.

Do,
pha*.

Play
a play a play, ha ha ha. Oh egregious* nonsensical widgeon*, thou shame to
our cross-legged corporation, thou fellow of a sound. Play a play. Why forty
pounds golding* of the beggars’ theatre speaks better, yet has a mark for the
sage audience to exercise their dexterity in throwing rotten apples, whilst
my stout actor pockets and then eats up the injury. Play a play: it makes my
Worship laugh y‘faith*.

To
him, Virmine, thou bites* him y‘faith*.

We’ll
act a play before the King.

What
play shall we act?

To
fret the French the more we will act strange but true, of the straddling
monsieur with the Neapolitan gentleman between his legs.

A
little player’s deceit: flour will do’t. Mark me, I can rehearse, mark me
rehearse some:
“When this eternal substance of the soul
Did live imprisoned in my wanton flesh

I was a tailor in the Court of Spain.”

Courtier,
Virmine, in the Court of Spain.

Aye,
there’s a great many Courtiers Virmine indeed:

Those
are they beg poor man’s living; but I say tailor Virmine is a Court tailor.

Who
shall act Jeronimo*?

That will I. Mark if I do not gape wider than the widest mouthed fowler* of them all, hang me*: “Who
call Jeronimo from his naked bed?” Ha. Now for the passionate part: “Alas it
is my son Horatio”.

Very fine, but
who shall act Horatio?

Aye,
who shall do your son?

What,
do, do again? Well, I will act Horatio.

Why,
you are his father!

Pray
who is fitter to act the son than the father that begot him?

Who
shall act Prince Balthazar and the King?

I
will do Prince Balthazar too, and for the King who but I? Who of you all has
such a face for a king, or such a leg to trip up the heels of a traitor?

You
will do all I think?

Yes
marry will I. Who but Virmine? Yet I will leave all to play the King, pass by
Jeronimo.

Then
you are for the King?

Aye,
bully*, aye.

Let’s
go seek our fellows and to this gear*.

Come
on then

Exit all.

Act Five Scene 3

Table and
stool are centre stage. Enter a Brave

Men
of our needful profession, that deal in such commodities as men’s lives, had
need to look about ‘em ere they traffic*. I am to kill Raymond, the Devil’s
cozen german*, for he wears the same complexion. But there is a right devil
that hath hired me; that’s Count Machvile. Good table conceal me – here will
I wait my watch word, but have I not forgot it, then, aye then, is my arm to
enter. I hear them coming.

Brave hides
under the table.

Enter the
King, Antonio, Old Tailor, Evadne and Aurelia above.
Enter Machvile, Auristella, Raymond, Philippa, Sebastiano,
the French and Spanish Colonels with a guard below

Pray
take your seats.

(to
Philippa) [You
are] Not well. Prithee retire.

Sick,
sick at heart.

Well
wrought poison. Oh how joy swells me.

You
see my Lord the poison is boxed* up.

Health
wait upon this royal company.

Knows
she we are here?

Oh
no my Lord, ‘tis to the twins of treason:
Machvile and Raymond.

(to
other colonels) Royal!
There’s something in’t.

(to
other colonels) It
smells rank o’th traitor,

(to
other colonels) Are
you i’th wind on’t?

Will
you leave us?

I
cannot stay. Oh, I am sick to death.

Exit Philippa

Or
I’ll ne’er trust poison more.

Pray
seat yourselves gentlemen. Though your deserts

Have
merit and your worth’s have deserved nobly,

But
ingratitude, that should be banished

From
a Prince’s breast, is Philip’s favourite.

Philip?
Traitor, why not King? I am so.

Patience,
my good Lord. I’ll down.

Exit Antonio

It
lives too near him.

You
that have ventured with expense of blood

And
danger of your lives to rivet him

Unto
his seat with peace; you, that in war

He
termed his Atlases* and pressed with praise

Your
brawny shoulders, called you his Colossuses*

And
said your looks frightened tall war out of

His
territories; now in peace, the issue

Of
your labour, this bad man, Philip I

Mean,
made of ingratitude won’t afford

A
name that may distinguish your worthy

Selves
from cowards: civet cats spotted with

Rat’s
dung, or a face like white broth strewed o’er

With
curranco* for a stirring caper

Or
itching dance to please my Lady Vanity

Shall
be made a smock* knight.

Villain!
Must our disgrace mount thee?

To
what tends this?

What means Count Machvile?

Enter Antonio
below

To
be your King; fie on this circumstance

My
longing will not brook it: say will you

Obey
us as your Kings and Queens?

(aside) My Lord
Antonio!

(to
Spanish Colonels)
Confine yourselves. The King is within hearing.

Therefore
make show of liking Machvile’s plot,

Let
him mount high; his fall will be the deeper.

My
life, you shall be safe.

Are
you agreed?

If
not we’ll force you to’t. Speak Frenchman, are

Our
forces i’th city?

Oui
monsieur.

We
acknowledge you our King.

More
traitors.

Why
then…

The Brave
stabs Raymond.

Ha,
from whence this sudden mischief? Did you not see a hand armed with the fatal
ruin of my life?

None
paw* signor.

Ha
ha ha. Lay hold on those French soldiers, away with them.

Exit Guard
with the French Colonels

Was’t
thy plot Machvile? Go laughing to thy grave.

Raymond stabs
Machvile

Alas
my lord is wounded.

Come
hither Frenchman, make a dying man

Bound
to thy love. Go to Philippa,

Sickly
as she is, bring her unto me

Or
my flying soul will not depart in

Peace
else. Prithee make haste. Yet stay; I have

Not
breath to pay thy labour. Shrink you, you

Twin-born
Atlases*, that bear this, my near

Ruined
world. Have you not strength to bear a

Curse,
whose breath may taint the air, that this globe

May
feel a universal plague. No, yet

Bear
up, till with a vengeful eye I
Outstare the day, and from the dogged sky

Pluck
my impartial star. Oh my blood is

Frozen
in my veins. Farwell revenge – me

Dies.

Raymond
collapses and dies

They
need no law.

Nor
hangman.

They
condemn and execute without a jury.

Enter Philippa
mad

I
come, I come. Nay fly not, for by Hell

I’ll
pluck thee by the beard and drag thee thus

Out
of thy fiery cave. Ha, on yonder hill

Stand
troops of devils waiting for my soul,

But
I’ll deceive them and instead of mine

Send
this same spotted tiger’s.

Philippa stabs
Auristella

Oh!

So
whilst they to Hell are posting with their

Prize
I’ll steal to Heaven. Wolf dost thou grin?

Ha,
is my Raymond dead? So ho, so ho.

Come
back you sooty fiends that have my

Raymond’s
soul and lay it down, or I will

Force
you for’t. No, won’t you stir? By Styx* I’ll

Bait
you for’t. Where is my Crown? Philippa

Was
a Queen, was she not? Ha! Where is my

Crown?
Oh you have hid it …

Philippa
overturns table.

Ha,
wast thou that robbed Philippa of her

Raymond’s
life? Nay I will nip your wings, you

Shall
not fly. I’ll pluck you by the guarded

Front
and thus sink you to Hell before me.

Philippa stabs
the Brave

Oh,
oh!

What,
down? Ho, ho, ho.

Laugh,
laugh, you sould that fry in endless flames.

Ha,
whence this chillness? Must I die? Nay then

I
come, I come. Nay, weep not, for I come.

Sleep
injured shadow, oh death strikes [me] dumb.

Philippa dies

Machvile thy hand. I can’t repent. Farewell.

My
burdened conscience sinks me down to Hell.

Auristella
dies

I
cannot tarry long, farewell. We’ll meet

Where
we shall ne’er part. If here be any

My
life has injured, let your charity

Forgive
declining Machvile: I am sorry.

His
penitence works strongly on my temper. Off disguise, see falling Count,
Antonio forgives you.